Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture designate and MP for Shama, Hon. Emelia Arthur, has hinted at her vetting yesterday that Blue Economy will be one of the key focus sectors of her leadership at the ministry.
She has explained that Blue Economy will be added as the third sector under the Ministry together with the Premix Fuel Secretariat and Fisheries Commission which are already in existence.
“We want to look at fisheries and aqua culture beyond people going to catch fish and selling. We want to look at fisheries and aqua culture in a broader sense. And Blue Economy has many components. One component is fisheries. The other component is bio-prospecting. The other component is mining under the sea and all of those things.”
“Now what we want to do with fisheries is to set-up a Blue Economy Commission that will be working to look at how we situate fishing beyond the narrow sense that we see it now.” she pointed out.
The minister designate also hinted that where need be, the commission will be brought under the Fisheries commission. That consideration will however be after a while.
“If this comes on board then we are going to have a third one called the Blue Economy Commission. And who knows, maybe when it’s set up and we begin to go into it, maybe we’ll realize that we have to submerge.” she said
Her vetting also discussed the matter of Illegal Under-reported and Unregulated fishing and Ghana’s yellow card sanction from the EU. Posing a question to her, member of the Appointments Committee of Parliament and MP for Okaikwei Central, Hon. Patrick Yaw Boamah asked how firm the minister designate was going to be in tackling the matter.
In her response, the minister designate said she will commit to processes that have commenced in the past to rectify the issue starting with a review of the Fisheries Act, Act 625.
“EU outlined a number of things that need to be sorted out so that the Yellow Card will be lifted. It is my understanding that those activities have began. One of which is to review the law on fisheries; Act 625 and apparently a Bill was even brought to the last parliament. As it is now, the bill probably has to be withdrawn and reworked” she said explaining the review seeks to include inland fishing a aquaculture which the current framework is silent on.
“In the Act 625, the law is quiet on inland fisheries and the aqua culture and so I’m told by the Ministry of Fisheries that work has already began in correcting those things that EU raised…So steps are already underway, and I pledge to move very quickly on addressing the issues to make EU take off the yellow card from Ghana.”
Her vetting has received applause especially on social media with users expressing satisfaction at her performance.
Meanwhile, some have taken the opportunity to compare her with the former minister Hawa Koomson whose vetting commenced on a nail-biting note for some Ghanaians. This followed what some said was her inability fish farming, a concept that is basic for her role.
