The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mrs Mavis Hawa Koomson, has wooed investors in Morocco to take advantage of the enormous investment opportunities in all segments of the fisheries and aquaculture value chain in Ghana.
She made this call when she met with the Moroccan Minister for Agriculture, Marine Fisheries, Rural Development and Forests, Prof. Mohammed Sadiki on Monday on the sidelines of the 2nd High-Level Conference on the Blue Belt Initiative underway in Morocco.
Mrs Koomson mentioned the establishment of fishing net production facilities, the production and supply of fibre canoes to replace wooden canoes in the artisanal and semi-industrial fishing sub-sectors and the establishment of state-of-the-art hatchery facilities for fingerlings production as lucrative investments that can be ventured into.
“The establishment of a commercial aquaculture production facility including shrimp farming and mariculture, establishments of fish feed production plant and fish processing and cold storage plants to improve value addition and reduce post-harvest losses are also highly profitable areas investors can look into,” she added.
She expressed gratitude for the financial and technical assistance provided by the Moroccan government under the ATLAFCO Convention and pledged Ghana’s continued participation in the implementation of ATLAFCO programmes.
In a related development, Mrs Koomson delivered a statement at the ongoing 2nd High-Level Conference on Blue Belt Initiative.
She stated that the fisheries sector has recently faced challenges, particularly the threat of IUU fishing practices, pollution of the sea and oceans and destruction of marine habitats.
She disclosed that the government in a bid to address these challenges, approved for the implementation of a new Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy in October 2022.
“The Areas of the Policy include climate change, blue growth initiative and blue economy, sustainable aquaculture development and development of infrastructure,” she noted.
She expressed the view that Ghana’s fish supply and demand gap could be closed by developing sustainable aquaculture.
Irene Wirekoaa Osei, ISD
