Nigeria signs MoU with Malta on fisheries development #nigeria

THE Federal Government has signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (Mou) with the island state of Malta to
develop a world class industrial fish township in Nigeria.
This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Olusegun
Mogbojuri, the Agricultural Attache to the Malta Embassy in
Nigeria, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
The statement said that Mogbojuri, who is also the
Chairman of Malta's International Fish Resources Park
( IFRP) signed the agreement on behalf of the Maltese
Government while the Provost, Federal College of Fisheries
and Marine Technology, signed on behalf of the Federal
Government of Nigeria.
"I have ordered the issuance of a month-long call for
Expression of Interest for Private-Public Partnership in
financing the delivery of six industrial fish parks and
townships to the Nigerian government.
"Over 250, 000 tonnes of farmed fish will be produced yearly
in each of the six locations.
" Several value chain industries and services that will be set
up around the facilities will create over a million direct and
indirect employments," it said.
The statement said that an implementation committee
comprising the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Federal Governing board for the Nigerian
Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR)
and IFRP had been constituted.
It said that the committee had been set up to execute the
MoU ahead of the EU financing summit for IFRP holding in
Malta later this year.
"Parties invited will partner IFRP which, going by the
operation of the MoU is to design, build, operate and
transfer (DBOT) the facilities on lands provided by the
Federal Government of Nigeria, for a fixed tenure," the
statement added.
According to the statement, Malta, an EU state, in the
Mediterranean had successfully completed landmark
fisheries projects.
The projects, it said, included a national aquarium and an
industrial township visited by several Nigerian delegations
in the recent past.