Fisheries contribute 1.26% to Africa GDP – Jia

NaijaAgroNet:

The Deputy Director at the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Mr. Jiansan Jia, has disclosed that fisheries contributes 1.2 per cent to Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Jia made this disclosure in his welcome remarks to the side event organised by the African Union Inter African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and the NEPAD Agency.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the event was convened at the 32nd FAO Committee on Fisheries, on 14 July in Rome, in order to share the African Union’s agenda on sustainable development and management of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture with the global community.

According to him, fish is a valuable and vital renewable resource which, if managed properly, and could provide huge benefits to both present and future generations.

African aquatic resources, he said, contributes significantly to food and nutritional security, income generation and economic welfare.

“The sector currently contributes 1.26 percent to Africa’s GDP and 6 percent to the continent’s agricultural GDP, but it could contribute so much more,” he declared.

With effective and sustainable management, Jia pointed out that aquatic resources have the potential to make even greater contributions to Africa’s economies and livelihoods.

Equally speaking, the AU-NEPAD Senior Advisor to Rome-based African Ambassadors, Ambassador Haladou Salha said priority actions have been identified.

“To this end, priority actions with clear milestones, indicators and responsibilities of stakeholders have been identified in the Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa,” he said.

Salha, also pointed out the need to transform fisheries and aquaculture into a more vibrant sector as was reaffirmed by African leaders in the 2014 Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods.

“It is therefore in support of the goals of the Malabo Declaration, that the Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa was developed and endorsed by the African Union Heads of State and Government.

For AU-IBAR’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy Analyst, Mr. Obinna Anozie, AU-IBAR’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy Analyst, presented the continental strategy’s focus on the development and management of small-scale fisheries and the development of aquaculture.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Pix: Dr Hamady Diop (Head of NEPAD’s Natural Resources Governance Programme); Mr Obinna Anozie (AU-IBAR’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy Analyst); Ambassador Haladou Salha (AU-NEPAD Senior Advisor to Rome-based African Ambassadors)