AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE government plans to procure eight fishing vessels for a special zone of deep sea resources as a key step to revive Tanzania Fisheries Corporation (Tafico).
Speaking during a fisheries stakeholders’ roundtable meeting, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries in charge of the fisheries sector, Dr Rashid Tamatamah, said the move would also create employment opportunities from marine resources.
Dr Tamatamah said the fishing vessels’ procurement would revive the fisheries sector in the country and facilitate development as the country geared up for tripling production and increase its contribution to GDP.
“We have not utilised well the deep sea resources since independence. The fishing vessels are expected by November or December as an aid from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD),” he said.
He said four of the eight vessels would be given to Zanzibar and the remaining to Mainland Tanzania, as the country wanted to utilise deep sea opportunities.
Moreover, the government has tabled 10 programmes to be implemented during the revival of mission of Tafico.
Dr Tamatamah added that the resurgence of the corporation would shape the growth of the fisheries sector, noting that up to now Tanzania had no vessel in the deep sea. According to him, the situation is not good for national security.
“Once we have our people in the area it will be easy to get information of what is going on there, including illegal fishing and pirates who may be operating in the deep sea without our concern,” noted Dr Tamatamah. He added that the new expected Tafico would be in charge in collaboration with private sector institutions.
In recent years, the government vowed to revive Tafico which started in the mid-1970s before it collapsed in the 1990s. Some financial institutions have already expressed interest in joint ventures with the government to run the company.
For his part, Chief Executive Officer of Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) Japhet Justine said the revival of Tafico would open a wide range of economic opportunities, including bringing in foreign currency.
“We have at least 223,000km in deep sea, but we haven’t invested enough to exploit resources found there. We are going to implement 10 programmes, which will put in place better infrastructures for fish industries,” he said.
