Mrs Foluke Areola, National President, Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON), has called for a correction of the imbalance in the fishery sector for it to be profitable to women.

In an interview with newsmen in Abuja, she said women were responsible for more than 80 per handling of the fishing sector in the country without adequate financial backing for them. She said there was urgent need to correct the imbalance by training women in various aspects of fishing and capacity building to better serve the sector and the general public.

Areola said that if the women from the market fish seller to aquaculture merchant were trained on the simple basic rules of marketing and preservation of their catches it would go a long way to improve their earnings and productivity.

She said in the last three years FISON had secured financial assistance from Access Bank to empower women who were just venturing into aquaculture business. Areola said with the fund from the American government, FISON was able to organise one-day training for the women in which they were told that their jewelleries could serve as collateral.

“Through the training we are able to do profit analysis and know that when you take fish from your stock for domestic consumption it is something you must pay for and you must also earn salary from the sales,” she said.