Offinso to lead Ashanti Region aquaculture

The growing interest among the youth in fish farming has triggered the Offinso municipality to partner with one of the leading fish farmers in Ashanti Region to provide training to the youth who are interested in the business.

The initiative is targeted at creating jobs for the youth and making Offinso the leading municipality in aquaculture in the Region.

Ghana needs over 880,000 tons of fish annually, reports say, but a little more than 420,000 tons is produced from marine, inland waters and fish farming.

More Ghanaians are, therefore, expected to go into fish farming in order to make up for the deficit of the about 460,000 tons, which is imported.

The need for more Ghanaians to take keen interest in fish farming has been underscored to help reduce fish importation and save enough foreign exchange for the country.

Most people have developed the interest in fish farming but lacked the capital and requisite skills to start the business.

But the 2013 Ashanti regional best fingerling producer, Laminu Issaka, has encouraged the youth to venture into the business, noting that fish farming is a profitable venture but one needs a huge capital to start the business.

He said the absence of feed milling machine to produce the feed locally is also a major challenge in the business because the foreign feed is very expensive.

Realizing growing interest among the youth, the Offinso municipality is set to partner ROMILLA FARMS, a leading producer of fish fingerlings in Ashanti Region to train interested youth in the business and provide them with technical skills.

The assembly will then provide the youth with all the materials needed to start the business, on a credit basis.

This is to make entering into the business easy for interested persons and, subsequently, make Offinso to lead in aquaculture in the region.

The Municipal Chief Executive Officer for Offinso, Baffuor Amankwah-Kese, said the project forms part of the Offinso Municpal Public-Private Partnership Agenda (OMPPPA) which seeks to reduce poverty in the area by creating more jobs to the youth.

The MCE added that the assembly is seeking for funds from EDAIF to establish a feed mill and be producing high quality compound feeds to supply all prospective fish farmers in the municipality and beyond.

This initiative is expected to bridge the gap in the country’s deficit for fish production, and reduce unemployment among the youth in the Offinso municipality.