Malam Muhammad Musa Bello
The Federal Capital Territory Administration has given allottees of Farm House plots at the Bwari Fish farm Estate a two-month deadline within which to develop the plots especially the fish ponds or have the allocations revoked.
The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello gave directive when he paid an unscheduled visit to the Bwari Fish Farm Estate in Bwari Area Council.
Malam Bello who expressed disappointment at the poor level of development in the estate warned that beneficiaries of the fish estate who continue to shun the site would have their plots revoked in the next two months if they fail to turn up.
He said the Fish Farm Estate, is a government intervention initiative that commenced in 2012 to encourage families to go into fish farming, leveraging on the water resources available in the FCT as well as the enormous market and also based on the realization that there is a huge gap between the demand for fish and the supply for fish.
Malam Bello said the project which has an estimated capacity of 500 metric tons of fish per annum is expected to create employment opportunities for residents of the FCT as well as contribute to national fish production, stressing that the project is in line with the general policy of the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration of job creation and economic empowerment for the populace and should therefore not be abandoned by the beneficiaries.
His words: “All those people who have plot in this place, I want everybody to come and put his fish pond within two months or else we revoke the allocation. “I was very amazed when the head of fishery was telling me that all the people refused to come here because there was no road; there was no water. Those of us in the village, are you saying if there is no road, you won’t go to your farm? It is the farmer that creates the road by going to and from his farmâ€, he said.
The Minister, however, assured that as part of his general policy drive of ensuring that all projects that are meant to be of immense benefit to the residents of the FCT that were commenced by previous administrations are completed, he will ensure that the project is completed in order to fulfil this mandate.
He was however full of praises for one of the farmers Mr. Vincent Oguche, an Architect by profession who had commenced fish production at the site saying: “I’ve come in here and I’ve seen so many things. I can see guava, I can see pawpaw, I can see Moringa, I can see palm tree. I saw banana over there and I saw Aloe Vera. I saw so many things and that’s the whole idea. This man is farming his fish, he’s raising chicken to use the droppings to create maggot for the fish. He’s also firing some of his fish so that when he goes to the market and they are not buying, he smokes it here, so, it adds value.
