By Isaac Arkoh
Elmina (C/R), June 14, GNA – The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MoFAD), has hinted of moves to establish a Fisheries Development Bank to empower stakeholders in the sector.
Mr Moses Anim, the Deputy Sector Minister, said having a strategic bank for the sector would be an important instrument to promote economic growth by providing flexible credit and a wide range of advisory services.
“The proposal to establish the Fisheries Development Bank is laudable. Hopefully, the bank will better understand fishers who were not sufficiently served by private commercial banks or local capital markets.
“Though there are banks offering credit to fishers, we will engage the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana on its feasibility as part of the government’s multifaceted approach to sustain the sector,” Mr Anim stated.
The Deputy Fisheries Minister gave the tip-off in response to an appeal by Nana Kodwo Conduah VI, the Omanhen of Elmina Traditional Area when he called on the Omanhen at his palace.
The visit was to officially inform the chiefs and the people that Elmina had been chosen to host the official ‘Close Season’ ceremony slated for Saturday, July 1, and to rake in their support.
While canoe and inshore fishers would observe the closed season between July 1 and 31, he said industrial trawlers would observe it from July 1 to August 31.
The objectives for the implementation of the closed season were to allow the recovery of over-exploited fish stocks and allow the rebuilding of depleted fish stocks.
It was also to reduce the high pressure on the stocks and allow the fish to maximize their potential during the annual peak spawning period before fishermen could harvest them.
Mr Anim said the Ministry was not leaving any stone unturned in its efforts to comply with internationally accepted sustainable fishing practices and cautioned fishers against blatant disregard for fisheries regulations.
The new fisheries management measures introduced by the Ministry to prevent Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in Ghanaian waters, he said, forbid any vessel with unauthorized fishing gear (fishing nets) to fish in Ghanaian waters.
He, therefore, gave a strong assurance that the MoFAD would not sit aloof for some selfish individuals to plunge the country’s fisheries sector into chaos through IUU fishing.
“Fishery resources have been the economic backbone of many fishing communities in the country for centuries.
“As a result, Ghana would continue to comply with internationally accepted sustainable fishing measures and also work with its trade partners such as the European Union, to ensure that the country was free from IUU fishing,” he stated.
Nana Kodwo Conduah who proposed the establishment of the bank said many fisher folks had been swindled by unscrupulous microfinance institutions, therefore the advent of a new bank had become necessary.
Besides that, many of the existing development banks have suffered mission creep and had over the years metamorphosed into deposit-taking commercial and retail banks, derailing them from their support for the core areas of operation.
For that matter, the proposed Fisheries Development Bank must be projected to address systematic failures in the credit market including lack of medium-and long-term credit, and lack of adequate funding for the fisheries sectors.
Nana Kodwo Conduah commended the government for building the Elmina Fishing Habour but lamented about the irregular supply of premix fuel, which was negatively affecting their livelihoods.
GNA