The World Bank-funded project, which comes to a close at the end of this year, is aimed at ensuring sustainable fishing across the West African sub-region through strategies that would optimise fishing activities and reduce illicit fishing in the corridor.

A Senior Natural Resource Economist of the bank, Ms Jingjie Chu, gave her blessing to the review when she paid a courtesy call on the sector Minister, Ms Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, in her office in Accra.

Media briefing

Addressing the media after the meeting, Ms Chu said an extension of the WARF project might be considered because of the strong action and commitment shown by the minister to improve the fisheries sector, adding that the activities of the sector would now be prioritised to enable it to achieve the maximum result.

The World Bank official also commended the ministry for taking action to reduce overfishing and also improving the fisheries value chain.

She mentioned women dominated the post-harvest aspect of the industry and, therefore, must be supported in their trade. 

She indicated that illicit fishing must be stopped and urged the ministry to empower the chief fishermen in various communities to help flush out the illegal fishers.

Sustainable fishing

Ms Quaye commended the World Bank for its support to the sector, saying her outfit had put measures in place to reduce the size of fleet of fishing vessels to avoid overfishing.

She said the ministry had stopped issuing permits to fishing vessels and would also inspect the vessels so that those found contravening the laws would be expelled.

The sector minister stated that the artisanal fishers would also be made to observe the close season of fishing to help replenish the fish stock.

Processing

Ms Quaye said modern fish processing facilities would be made available for women to process their fish to the European Union (EU) standard to enable them to export fish to the EU market.

She said, plans were far advanced to solicit assistance from the Moroccan government to provide the women with insulated containers and vans to transport fish from the harbour to market centres to improve the shelf life of the produce.

To that end, the fisheries and aquaculture development minister said the ministry was working to get a vessel for research to enable scientists to carry out studies on the sector.