Fisheries Monitoring Centre capacity assessment Nigeria

Between 26 and 27 February 2024, personnel from TMT, part of the technical team supporting the West Africa Task Force  in collaboration with  the Fisheries Committee of the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) Regional Monitoring Control and Surveillance Centre (RMCSC) conducted an assessment of the capacities of the Federal Depart of Fisheries, Fisheries Monitoing Centre (FMC) in Lagos.

The aim of the assessment was to evaluate the existing capacity of the FMC and identify the essential requirements and needs. This included an assessment of the infrastructure, institutional and human capacity available.

The assessment in Nigeria is the first of the FMC assessments to be conducted in the FCWC sub-region, based on a methodology developed specifically for this purpose. The methodology was designed to build on the broader monitoring, control and surveillance assessment completed in 2022, fleshing out the details around key FMC needs.

The findings will enable Nigeria to identify gaps, prioritise needs and engage with financial and technical partners. Some of these needs will be addressed through Phase III of the Norad funded project ‘Fisheries Intelligence and MCS Support in West Africa’ which began at the start of the year 2024.

For more information on the project, see the blog post here.

TMT will work with other partners supporting the sub-region in targetting identified priorities for capacity building, with a view to creating synergy by increasing efficiency and efectiveness of efforts. 

While the assessments are national, some key needs are expected to be common throughout the sub-region.  With this in mind, regional training is being considered once all FMC assessments are completed. The results will guide and inform the development of a strategy to facilitate connections between the RMCSC and the national FMCs.