Starting off as a pilot project, it is a first for the fishing community. The integrated package includes voice, internet, Tigo Cash and Tigo Insurance.  It also comes with subsidised mobile handsets.

Speaking at separate community launch events in Axim and Elimina, the Chief Business Officer for Tigo Business, Stephen Essien, said the pilot phase will run until the end of the year after which it will be expanded based on the learnings from Adina, Bortianor, Elmina, and Axim, coastal communities within the Central and Western regions.

“Our focus was a solution that ensured both financial and digital inclusion. The service would also provide them with up to the minute information from their respective associations and the Fisheries Commission. The integrated solutions were developed after extensive engagements with the fisher folk and others in the value chain, he explained.

Present at the launch were representatives from the National Fish Traders and Processors Association (NAFTPA) and the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council (GNCFC).

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Source: Tigo Ghana

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They say the combination of factors that have bedevilled the sector over the past two decades needs no interference from political hands particularly with dealing with people who break fishing laws.

Speaking at a press conference organized jointly by Friends of the Nation, the Industrial Trawlers Association of Ghana, National Fish Processors Association, and the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council in Takoradi, secretary for the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council Mike Abaka-Edu noted that “the rigorous enforcement of fisheries laws will contribute to improving the industry and rebuild stock…when politicians do not interfere in the actions of the Fisheries Enforcement Unit. This will ensure that culprits who flout fisheries laws are dealt with.”

The group bemoaned the rise of the use of harmful chemicals such as detergents, carbide, dynamite and other unapproved methods for fishing, the over politicisation of the sale of premix fuel and the “order from above” syndrome which has characterised the implementation of fishing laws.

“The distribution and sale of pre-mix fuel should be timely and devoid of partisan politics. Political party members should not be given the power to control the sale of the fuel so as to eliminate the issue of black market on shore and the coastal areas. Landing Beach Committees should be most accountable by preparing and disseminating quarterly reports on their sale to avoid misappropriation of funds,” Mike Abaka Edu added.

The group reminded the NPP government to honour its fisheries promises in its 2016 manifesto to “eliminate import duties on fishing equipment…We recommend that this promise be fulfilled in the 2017 budget statement and economic policy. We appreciate the government’s promise to place local fisher folks directly in charge of subsidized inputs through local designated outputs”.

Other recommendations from the group included the termination of distribution of subsidized fishing inputs through MMDAs. “This should be done through chief fishermen and Konkohemaa.”

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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Despite the huge export potentials and high local demands, the fishing industry in Ghana has over the years suffered stock depletion as a result of poor fishing methods and in some cases sea erosion, which destroys beaches and fishing equipment.

Fishermen and fishmongers across the country have lamented the situation which they say threatens their livelihoods.

[contextly_sidebar id=”jGEgVByuPZLNRXcYgOu9Q9sPrILTgyk1″]In the roundup to the just ended elections, the main political parties promised to revive the dwindling fishing industry.

With the New Patriotic Party (NPP) assuming office, fishermen in the Volta Region are calling on the President to fulfill his party’s campaign promises for the fisheries sector.

“The new government should come and build a landing site for us so that every boat after returning from the sea, would just come and dock at the landing site. Because these tidal waves and those things are just destroying the boat. People have even started stealing our outboard motors from the canoes again because we have no landing site” Ignatius Kudzo stated.

In an interview with Citi News at their general meeting in Adina, near Denu, the Deputy Regional Secretary of the Fishermen Association in the Volta Region, Thomas Ignatius Kudzo, called on the President to also help fight pair trawling and light fishing.

“They should get us Marine Police or Ghana Navy to come around and deal with patrolling on the sea so that the law can deal with anyone engaged in the act. They should not see this as political and let the law deal with the perpetrators” he added.

The fisher-folk also congratulated President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on his assumption of office, as the 5th President of the fourth Republic.

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By: King Norbert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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