Ghana to revamp fishing fleet

Ghana's Ministry of Fisheries is in the process of revamping the fishing industry by retrofitting over 12,000 inshore boats with fibreglass. The programme, aimed at ensuring safety at sea and sufficiency of fish catch to meet the demand of the consuming public, is to be executed by Fibroplast, an Indian boat building company.

Gladys Asmah, Minister of Fisheries, said Fibroplast was chosen to execute the job because of its track record of rehabilitating over 10,000 boats destroyed by the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean in December 2005.

"We need to revamp the fishing industry if we are to compete with the rest of the world in fishing," Asmah said. "We also need to be mindful of the rate of deforestation in our region and move away from the use of dugout wood for building canoes to what is being used in modern fleets, fibreglass, in the building of our canoes," she added.

Asmah said if the fishing industry was revamped to compete with those of the other countries along the Gulf of Guinea, Ghanaian fishermen who had migrated to Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia and beyond would all come back to the country to help.

"We are working at providing all the equipment needed to support the fishermen in terms of getting them new engines, sonar equipment,echo-sounders,searchlights, safety jackets and all, to ensure safety at sea as well as encourage sustainable fishing to support our population," she said. Asmah said when all the equipment arrived, a law to prevent fishermen from going to sea without a life jacket would be put in place to regulate the industry.

She said the Ministry was working at securing a credit facility to cushion the fishermen in the procurement of the new boats. "The move from canoe to fibreglass would be gradual, since the Ministry is now negotiating with the Agricultural Development Bank for concessionary loans for the fishermen who are willing to order new ones and also for those who would refurbish their old boats."

Asmah said the MD of Fibroplast, Harish C. Narula, had already gone round the coastal areas to interact with the fishermen to get their specifications for building of fibreglass boats. "Fibroplast is willing to train some Ghanaians in the building and maintenance of the boat so that after the contract, Ghanaians could fully take over the maintenance," she said.

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