The Managing Director of the Agricultural Development Bank, (ADB), Dr. John Kofi Mensah, says the bank will continue to focus on its core mandate of investing in agribusiness and farmers.
The bank in its latest move has provided outboard motors worth 20 million cedis to some fisher folk along the coast.
This comes not long after it announced a 500-million-cedi package to boost local poultry production.
Speaking to journalists after the delivery of the outboard motors, Dr. Mensah said the prices have been heavily subsidized to help the fisher-folk acquire them.
“ADB has placed itself recently to move very hard to push agribusiness. And this includes crops, animal rearing, commercial tree planting, poultry and the fishing industry. It also includes those who engage in fish pond farming and most importantly our fishermen who ply the sea. They are in numbers, all along the coast so we decided to commit twenty million cedis into this project. We avoided all the fees and commission that a private person who would have imported will encounter,” he said.
The Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Elizabeth Aforley Quaye, says the collaboration with ADB demonstrates government’s commitment to grow the agric sector.
“There is a clear demonstration of government’s commitment to support the fisherfolk. Since we came, we have done so much to assist them and this is a clear demonstration of the support that President Akufo-Addo assured the fisherfolk. In the history of the Agric bank in the procurement of outboard motors, this is the biggest number that the Bank has ever procured. So, this is a feather in the cap of the President,” she said.
Fisheries constitutes an important sector in the national economic development, as it is estimated to contribute 3 % of the total GDP and 5 % of the GDP in agriculture.
Also, about 10 % of the country’s population is engaged in various aspects of the fishing industry.
Currently, the new fishing license fees approved by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning is US$ 200 per gross registered tonnage.
According to the Ministry, the increment is aimed at protecting Ghanaian fishermen.
