By Taisiah K. Merfee
Performing the official launching exercise of the Department of Fishery and Aquaculture Sciences (DoFAS) at the University of Liberia on Wednesday, January 25, 2023, Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor disclosed the Visitor of the University and President of Liberia, George Weah has committed the Government to provide US$500 to the program.
Ms. Taylor said Government’s commitment is to ensure that people can enroll into the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences program free of charge at the University of Liberia.
She noted President Weah is quite clear that his government’s job is to make Liberia better, and not bitter.
The Vice President iterated that the Medical program and the Teacher’s College at the University of Liberia are tuition-free, and so the Government will ensure that the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences program is tuition-free as well at the UL.
Touching on external support for the new program at the UL, Vice President Taylor revealed international partners provided almost US$2 million (Two Million United States Dollars) for the new degree-granting program at the University of Liberia.
Additionally, the Vice President indicated the importance of encouraging females’ enrolment into the new degree-granting Fishery and Aquaculture Sciences Program at the UL because it will help sustain their families and provide all kinds of benefits to their children.
Making remarks, the World Bank Group Global Director of Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy, Dr. Valerie Hickey lauded the timing of the program which she noted is right. She suggested that Liberians should turn fishery into food security, jobs and GDP.
Dr. Hickey urged Liberians to also make sure that as they move from artisanal fishery to industrial fishery, they should own and operate the industrial factories in the sector.
The World Bank official indicated the frontier of innovation, industrialization, and economic development is on the oceans. These days, she said ocean energy is talked about more than other types of energy.
Education Minister Prof. Dr. Ansu Sonii hailed the launching of the new academic program in Fisheries Sciences at the University of Liberia.
In the 70s, he said, fishery was primary to the economy of the country. He congratulated the UL and NaFAA boss Emma Metieh Glassco for the program.
He also hailed Executive Director Glassco for taking fishery from a little building at the Freeport of Monrovia and made it an esteemed institution in the country.
Dr. Sonii said he believes that President Weah may have envisioned that when he appointed Ms. Glassco to head NaFAA, saying she has not disappointed “any one of us.”
On Wednesday January 25, 2023, a new degree-granting program was launched at the University of Liberia, where several dignitaries, including Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor, Deputy House Speaker Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa, World Bank Group Global Director of Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy, Dr. Valerie Hickey, Education Minister Prof. Dr. Ansu Sonii, Executive Director of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) Emma Metieh Glassco, among others gracing the occasion.
Others who attended the launching program, included university and high school students, international partners, members of the faculty, and the public.
The Department of Fishery and Aquaculture Sciences (DoFAS), falls under the Thomas Jefferson Faulkner College of Science and Technology at the University of Liberia.
The Department will offer a Bachelor of Science Degree to students who major in Fishery Science and Management.
