One hundred and fifty-six students of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) have benefited from a $5.5 million five-year marine development project organised by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The beneficiaries include 16 PHD candidates, 20 Master of Philosophy students and 120 undergraduate students.
The scholarship opportunity has been extended to cover three other public universities namely the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the University of Development Studies and the University of Health and Allied Health Sciences (UHAS).
The beneficiaries will work in collaboration with other institutions to carry out a wide range of research and inform decision making, strengthen law enforcement and heighten public awareness of fisheries concerns.
The USAID had also refurbished the UCC Fisheries and Coastal Research Laboratory and has equipped it with an array of state of the art equipment to determine age and growth of fishes.
Dr Denis Aheto, Director of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, said “we will support, stimulate and promote the development of aqua-culture and fisheries”.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, he said the Department was collaborating with major institutions such as the University of Rhode Island to rebuild Ghana’s marine fisheries stocks.
Dr Aheto said the project would help consolidate gains made by the Integrated Coastal and Fisheries Governance (ICFG) Initiatives and add to marine fisheries management training programme at the University.
He said the effort would complement the government’s fisheries development objectives and USAID’s Feed the Future (FtF) goals of improved food security, economic growth and poverty alleviation.
GNA
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