Dzolokpuita (V/R), April 11, GNA - Chiefs in the Volta Region have been urged to lead their people to invest in the emerging fish farming industry which promises immeasurable financial gains and economic prosperity.

Mr Henry Gidi, President of the Global Agriculture Foundation, gave the advice when officials of the Foundation addressed a meeting of the Congress of Ho-West Chiefs at Dzolokpuita on Sunday. Mr Gidi, whose Foundation is spearheading fish farming on the Volta Lake, assured the chiefs that they and their people could earn from fish farming what their counterparts elsewhere in the country were earning from royalties and cash crops such as cocoa. He said the vast Volta Lake and other water bodies in the Volta Region are 93gold mines" waiting for the people to mine with minimum investment.

Mr Gidi predicted that a great economic transformation would take place in the Volta Region within a short time provided the people embrace and invest in the industry.

"Everybody in the Volta Region could become a very prosperous proxy fish farmer within a short time", he said. He said the Foundation was liaising with the National Youth Employment Programme to recruit 5,000 youths from each of the 10 regions for training and employment in various aspects of fish farming.

The Reverend Worlanyo Afenu, Executive Secretary of the Foundation, said that the Foundation would look for money to build fish cages and services on behalf of prospective fish farmers after they had paid a registration fee of 50.00 Ghana cedis each. He said after six months the first harvest of fish would take place and deductions amounting to 30 percent of revenue earned to pay off the loan and services with the remainder 70 percent paid to the farmer.

Rev Afenu said the farmer then becomes the owner of the cage and therefore stood to earn higher returns from the sale of fish harvested from his cage.

He said the market for fish in the country currently is high with much higher potentials for the future as investors in fish processing showing interest in investing in the country.

Rev Afenu said information from the Fishery Commission indicated that Ghana's fish demand stood at 888,000 metric tonnes, 400 metric tonnes of which come from domestic sources.