The Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC), in partnership with its technical partner Trygg Mat Tracking (TMT) and Stop Illegal Fishing, under the West Africa Task Force (WATF), successfully held an online webinar on 4 August 2026, bringing together Directors of Fisheries and Heads of Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) from its six Member States to discuss the establishment of the Regional Record of Authorised Fishing Vessels (RRAFV).

 

The RRAFV is being developed as a regional tool to enhance transparency, improve compliance, and support sustainable fisheries governance among FCWC Member States, with funding from Norway under the “Fisheries Intelligence and MCS Support in West Africa” project with support funding for the webinar from ECOWAS. The development of the Register has been guided by a series of technical consultations within the WATF framework, including discussions held in Accra and at the Conference of Ministers in Lagos in November 2025, where Member States agreed on the Terms of Reference for the RRAFV and Nigeria volunteered to serve as the first pilot country.

 

The webinar aimed to present the RRAFV vessel authorisation process and eligibility criteria; share the initial findings and lessons learned from the Nigerian pilot phase; discuss challenges encountered in the application of the agreed eligibility criteria and seek Member States’ endorsement of the proposed recommendations and next steps; and introduce the draft Protocol for the formal establishment of the Register.

 

During the pilot phase, the proposed RRAFV framework was tested at the national level against Nigeria’s fishing fleet. While the pilot confirmed the value of the regional approach, it also revealed practical challenges in applying some of the agreed eligibility criteria, leading to a refinement of those criteria to ensure a workable and concrete path for implementation. In parallel, a draft Protocol was prepared to formalise the transition from the pilot phase to the full regional establishment of the Register.

 

Participants engaged in substantive discussions on the findings of the Nigerian pilot, the proposed adjustments to the eligibility criteria, and the draft Protocol as a basis for the next phase of implementation. The webinar served as a platform for Member States to collectively exchange perspectives and formulate recommendations on the way forward for the effective establishment of the RRAFV.

 
The expected outcome of the webinar was a shared understanding of the initial pilot results and broad support for the proposed recommendations and the path forward for the continued development of the RRAFV, as a key tool to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and strengthen fisheries governance across the Gulf of Guinea.

 
 

Tema, Ghana | 4 August 2026