Five time award-winning best fisherman Mr. Justice Raymond Prah has lamented that the Elmina Fish Processing Plant has been a problem because there should have been a fishing harbor to feed the operations of the fishing processing plant.
Speaking on Plan B FM morning show NKOSUONSEM with Nana Yaw Abrompah, he said govt should put politics aside and let the fishing processing plant work to the benefit of all fishermen in the area because it has not been operational since it was commissioned in 2016.
He continued that, sometimes the authorities take decisions without consulting or involving the fisherfolks who are privy to all the challenges in the fishing industry.
“They brought the closing season of fishing so that the fish can multiply but immediately after the season is closed foreign vessels from Europe and China start fishing in Ghana waters with lighten system to catch an abundance of the fish which is against the fishing rules and later the fish will be imported into the country whilst we have Ghanaian fishermen who need support from the government to do better. Are we so hopeless that we can’t do fishing in Ghana’?, and am sorry to y say that our minister of Fisheries doesn’t know anything about fishing expeditions” he fumed.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurance has inspected the abandoned Elmina Fish Processing Plant in the Central Region to ascertain the challenges and find sustainable solutions to them.
The Plant, constructed by Expotec International Limited of India for $7.8 million, with funding from the EXIM Bank of India, had been abandoned after it was commissioned in 2016.
The delegation, led by the Chairperson of the Committee, Madam Patricia Appiagyei, and the Ranking Member, Mr. John Kwabena Bless Oti, paid a visit to the facility as part of their two-day working visit to the region to be abreast of activities in the fisheries sector.
Mr. Enoch Boadu Amoh, a Director at the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, who conducted the member’s round, said after the commissioning in 2016, it was given out to a private person to manage for a while, but it was realized that the ice block chamber was not fit for purpose.
The Plant had an ice block-making facility and 40 cubicles of cold storerooms.
He said before construction works started, an effluent treatment plant to treat the fish waste was not part of the design but because of the contract that had already been signed, it was decided to go ahead with the project and later add the effluent treatment plant in phase two.
“The discussion was that they would refurbish the system under phase two to process more fish. But it had been back and forth,” he said.
In 2020, officials from the EXIM Bank of India visited Ghana to inspect the project and later came back in 2021, when they asked the Ministry to submit a proposal for the second phase, Mr. Amoh said.
After the proposal was submitted, the Fisheries Minister had to visit EXIM Bank in 2022 in India where it was agreed that the project would need a treatment plant and a warehouse.
He said without the effluent treatment plant, the Environmental Protection Agency would not allow the project to begin fish processing.
On the funding, Mr Amoh said the total funding was about $11 million with the plant costing $7.8 million.
“So with the about $2.63 million left, it was agreed that they could be able to do the outstanding work and get the facility running,” he said.
The delegation also toured the Anomabo Fisheries College to acquaint itself with the progress of work, where Mr. Richard Abbey, the Consultant, told the members that work was almost completed and would be ready for use by the end of the year.
Mrs. Appiagyei said the Committee was at the Elmina Fish Processing Plant to verify an assurance in 2021 by the Fisheries Minister that the Ministry was leaving no stone unturned to revive the Plant.
However, up until now, they had not seen the realization of that assurance, she said.
Mrs. Appiagyei noted that the Committee would have to invite the Minister to make a statement on the state of the Plant.
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