There are insinuations that Nigeria may have been schemed out of 15 million (N6 billion) European Union (EU)-funded project designed for the development and improvement of fisheries activities in the West African sub-region by the francophone countries.
The project is informed by the belief that contribution of fisheries to the economic development of West Africa is sub-optimal and the current governance of fisheries threatens food security, means of subsistence and marine biodiversity, hence EU is providing support to the fight against illegal fishing in West Africa.
Also, the project, funded under the European Development Fund (EDF), was aimed to improve regional fisheries governance in West Africa and this would include developing a regional fishing policy, putting in place regional coordination against Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and improving fish stock management at the regional level.
As THISDAY was reliably informed, the 15 million project is one of the many significant commitments to ocean conservation made by the EU at the 2017 Ocean Conference hosted by the EU in Malta.
Tagged: the EU-funded West Africa Fisheries Governance Improvement Project (PESCAO), it “aims at enhancing regional fisheries management by firstly, addressing regional fisheries policy at the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) level; secondly by building the capacities of competent national and regional Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) authorities to deter Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing; and thirdly demonstrating the added value of coordinated approaches for shared fisheries management.”
2019 AllAfrica