The Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi ( FIIRO), says it has trained no fewer than 27 people on fish smoking technology in Ondo State.

Dr  Yemisi Asagbara, Acting Director General of the institute, disclosed this on Wednesday at a two-day training in Igbara-Oke, Ifedore Local Government Area of the state.

Asagbara said that the training was aimed at preserving fish products through value addition for higher financial returns.

She explained that the broad objective of the training was to address the problem of youth unemployment and perennial post-harvest losses in most rural communities.

Asagbara said this was by offering technology-based entrepreneurial exposure that would engender enterprise development.

According to her, FIIRO is committed to deploying its expertise to support rural industrialisation by adding value to agricultural commodities of relative economic advantage in the country’s six geo-political zones.

“FIIRO has trained more than 500,000 techno-entrepreneurs across Nigeria through its technology transfer and entrepreneurship development, with many of them setting up their own businesses and creating millions of job opportunities.

The South-West coordinator of the institute, Mr Deji Oyediran, said that the aim of the training was to ensure that women and the youth benefited from the institute’s knowledge.

Oyediran said the knowledge would enhance their businesses and enable them become job creators.

He added that the FIIRO’s intervention would go a long way to boost the participants’ knowledge base and make them better fish producers.

According to Oyediran, FIIRO’s intervention is needed in creating more jobs so that there will be reduction in youth restiveness and crimes.

A participant, Mrs Abibat Ogunrinde, a Masters degree student of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, commended the institute for offering an in-depth and comprehensive training.

Ogunrinde said that she would go into fish smoking business after her Masters programme in a couple of months.

Another participant, Mr Oluwasegun Fagbemile, described the training as interesting and encouraging, adding that it was good for the unemployed to earn a living and become sufficiently self- reliant.

Fagbemile expressed the hope that his fish production would be able to meet international standard for exportation, after applying knowledge acquired at the training.