AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE government through Livestock and Fishery Ministry has donated four boat engines to fishing cooperative unions to uplift the level of fishing business, a move that aims to improve livelihood to fishermen.
Earlier, the government donated five boat engines to make the donated boat engines to 13 worth 60m/-.
Handing over the boat engines here yesterday, Livestock and Fishery Minister, Mr Luhaga Mpina, said the government encourages other cooperative unions to improve performance in order to get subsidies from the government.
“Most of our fishermen use poor fishing gears, hence posing a serious challenge in their activities. They work year in year out but their lives remain the same,” said the Minister.
Mr Mpina said his ministry had conducted evaluation on fishery business across the country, saying the evaluation had discovered a number of challenges facing the fishermen.
The Minister noted that the government had managed to unite fishermen through cooperative unions to enable them get access to loans from the government to improve their activities.
He said fishing groups in Ukerewe District have benefited from government loans amounting to 500m/-, saying the government has dished out 800m/-to cooperative unions.
On his part, Kyela Constituency MP, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, said fishermen were now grabbing opportunities offered by the government, saying the opportunities would boost their activities.
He pointed out that Kyela has four main rivers, including Kiwira, Songwe, Lufilio and Mbaka, but he said the fishermen were not making enough profits due to poor fishing gears.
“The boat engines donated today (yesterday), will benefit our fishermen in Kyela,” said the Information, Culture, Arts and Sports Minister whose constituency was one of the beneficiaries.
He said the boat engines will help to improve the level of efficiency in fishing to fishermen in his constituency, saying the rivers in Kyela have big fish like Mbasa fish, which is larger than a normal fishing boat.
“I believe people in Kyela will now be encouraged to join cooperative unions to get access to government loans,” he said.
Speaking at the same event, Permanent Secretary in the Livestock and Fishery Ministry, Dr Rashid Tamatama, said 85 percent of fishermen in the country are small scale fishermen.
“90 percent of fishes are fished by small scale fishermen across the country,” he said.
He said in the 2019/2020 fiscal year, the government has recognized 102 cooperative unions formed by fishermen across the country, saying the cooperative unions have encouraged formation of new 14 cooperative unions, bringing the number to 116.
Dr Tamatama observed that the goal to set up cooperative unions was to enable fishermen to have one voice in order to get access government loans to improve their businesses.
