Fisheries development in Cameroon: LINAFl Reversing FCFA 100 Billion Importation Haemorrhage

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Fisheries development in Cameroon: LINAFl Reversing FCFA 100 Billion Importation Haemorrhage

07 oct. 2021 17:11

The Limbe Nautical Arts and Fisheries Institute (LINAFI) has produced 137 fishing experts in two promotions to reverse capital flight in sea food importation.

Experts of the field have confirmed that by 2015, fishing along Cameroon’s South West offshores in the Atlantic Ocean was over 90 percent dominated by foreigners. The situation bled an estimated colossal sum of FCFA 100 Billion from Cameroon importing sea food yearly.

Such foreigners exploiting Cameroon waters include sea farers from China, Benin, Nigeria, Ghana, and Sierra Leone. They are known in the various fishing pots of the Bakassi Peninsula, Ekondo Titi and Mundemba in Ndian Administrative Division, the shores of Limbe, Idenau in Fako, as well as Mbonge in Meme.

The myth was broken in 2016 when the Head of State created a professional school to train fishermen and women who can man the sector and create jobs, boost the economy and secure sea protein food for Cameroonians. The fishing school named Limbe Nautical Arts And Fisheries Institute (LINAFI) had its first intake in the 2017-2018 academic year and has since then trained 137 nationals in fishing technologies.

With five permanent teachers, LINAFI, the Wovia-Limbe-based Fisheries Institution, employs many part-timers to fulfil their mission of developing the fisheries sector. The empowerment of nationals in the fishing domain has fiddled out capital flight and ensured food sufficiency. It was also astonishing that the coastal population of Cameroon did not muster much interest in fishing like in the neighbouring countries. Where there were attempts to fish on t...