A new blueprint for Kenya’s fishermen is design to improve the industry’s infrastructure, marketing and research and establish legal and institutional frameworks for the sector. The new look of the fishing industry will have the policy document to increase the country’s earnings from fish exports from Sh8 billion to Sh10 billion. It is said that the policy document to be launched later this month. This will turn the the activity, which has been the source of income for Kenya’s 2 million fishermen into a reliable foreign exchange earner.
As per the local news agency promoters of the policy admit to increase fisheries contribution to the Gross Domestic Product from 1.1 per cent to seven per cent and boost foreign exchange reserves. It is told that the document is proposing the formation of Kenya Fisheries Development Authority (KFDA) with the mandate to create an enabling environment for a vibrant fishing industry that is based on sustainable resource exploitation, and poverty alleviation.
According to the fisheries minister Paul Otuoma lack of policy is to blame for the industry’s poor performance. He added that besides, there are other provisions in the new policy include the promotion of sustainable and efficient aquaculture, which contributes only one per cent of the industry’s total earnings. He told that the new policy promotes investment in small, medium and large-scale commercial aquaculture through institutional reforms that make affordable credit available.
