Poverty is endemic in fishing communities

The Minister of Fisheries, Mrs Gladys Asmah has expressed worry over the level of poverty in fishing communities.

Mrs Asmah who was speaking during the commissioning of a 2.5 million dollar fish processing plant at Elmina said the communities deserve better lives than they have.

Mrs Asmah says steps are being taken to support fishing communities through the provision of micro credits and the construction of fishing harbours as well as cold storage facilities to enable the inhabitants raise their living standards to a more appreciable level.

She attributed the largely uneconomical lean fishing season as cause for the failure of the fisher folks to break out of their poverty.

She assured them that fishing groups in the communities would benefit from the distribution of about 600 outboard motors which they would be expected to work and pay for.

About 11.1 billion cedis will also be disbursed as micro credits to about 5000 fishmongers, and to ensure adequate storage of fish, multipurpose facilities would be built in six communities by the ministry with support from the Spanish government beginning the second quarter of this year.