Fisheries sector gets US$6m funding boost

By Wisdom JONNY-NUEKPE

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has boosted funding for a programme designed to improve Ghana’s fisheries with US$6million.

Launched in 2021, the Feed the Future Ghana Fisheries Recovery Activity (GFRA), a five-year initiative, aims to improve the sustainability of the country’s sardines, mackerel and anchovies fisheries.

GFRA aims to improve enforcement and move some commercial fishermen into other trades. The programme is overseen by international development firm Tetra Tech ARD.

The USAID predicts that there will be increased pressure as a result of overfishing if the current economic situation worsens, hence, the project seeks to counteract that pressure with an additional infusion of cash.

“The activity has been very successful; however, Ghana’s current economic crisis significantly increases the pressure for individuals and businesses to over-fish an already decimated coastal fishery in search of economic gains,” USAID/Ghana justified the funding increase.

“The modifications proposed are designed to ramp up fishing alternatives and accelerate proposed regulations to address over-fishing,” Deputy Chief of Party-GFRA, Maxwell Amoah, noted.

The additional funding increases USAID’s investment in the sector from US$17.8million to US$23.8million.

The US$6million will allow GFRA to provide skills and job training to another 4,000 youths, offering alternative career paths to commercial fishing. Prior to the injection of the cash, Tetra Tech ARD had to turn down half of applicants for the programme.

Portions of the money will also be used to scale up installation of electronic monitoring systems on all 75 licensed industrial trawl vessels in the country.

In March last year, the government committed to achieving 100 percent monitoring of industrial fishing vessels by 2025.

“As the first West African nation to commit to 100 percent monitoring of all industrial fishing vessels, the government is taking a bold position to improve transparency of fishing activity,” Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mavis Hawa Koomson, said.

The funding, according to her, will contribute to the country’s aim to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The increased spending is aslo expected to help government create its first Marine Protected Areas.

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