The Deputy Minister-Designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Moses Anim, has pledged his commitment to assist the sector Minister to establish a “zero tolerance for transshipment” in the country.
According to him, this will be done through the relevant agencies, application and implementation of the applicable laws.
He told members of the Appointments Committee of Parliament that there would also be the need to beef up the monitoring and control surveillance system.
“As I speak to you we are upgrading the vessel monitoring system and we are trying to link it up with a local data system that will be hosted by meter,” he stated and added, “we can use that system as a surveillance tool to detect what is happening on the high seas.”
Mr Anim, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Trobu, indicated that the co-management policy, which the government approved last year, had been gazetted, intimating that this means “we need to involve and include all stakeholders to make sure we can solicit voluntary compliance.”
He noted that voluntary compliance was key in fighting transshipment, and added: “I will assist my Minister because I speak four local languages and you know our coastline spans along four regions.”
“Our inland subsector also spreads within the entire country and I believe that with this engagement, we will deal with the challenge. The co-management system has to involve broader-based consultation and engagement and that is where the language power will work,” he explained.
We will be engaging our people in their local dialects for them to appreciate the issues better,” he posited.
*Premix Fuel*
On the issue of premix fuel, the nominee said the nation could not throw its hands in the air because of the challenges and pointed out that already the diversion of premix fuel had been identified.
“The tracking system was used to reduce that challenge. At one point, the problem came to the landing site. Now we have done the canoe identification for the marine side,” he asserted.
“We are trying to put in barcode into the canoe identification where we could have a quota system for registered industrial prayers so that at least they will have a landing site where there is a filling [fuel] station where you can go with your quota and when you exhaust it that will be it,” Mr Anim said.
“The other challenge is the hoarding and I think that when we get there, together with all the major stakeholders and relevant agencies, we should find a nice way to make sure that the problem is solved.”
He wondered why some people complained of shortage when the government released 101.7 million litres of premix in 2020 and indicated that “it means that the issues that we are raising are very critical and together when I get there, I will assist my Minister and see how best to address the problems.”
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House