Mombasa County seeks to increase its investment in the blue economy and improve market access for the fisher folk following the Sh10 billion funding from the World Bank targeting five coastal counties.
With the acquisition of 28 modern fishing gear for 1,500 fishermen from 14 Beach Management Units (BMUs) across the county, Governor Hassan Joho’s administration has now turned its focus on capacity building for the fishermen and access to the market.
County Executive Member for Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives Tendai Mtana, said the county government was pushing for training of the fishermen and equipping of the airport with cold storage facilities to ensure fish captured in the Indian Ocean is distributed to the Great Lakes region faster.
He said the repossession of fish landing sites and equipping them with cold storage facilities was a priority of the county government which aims to boost the blue economy programme.
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According to the CEC, the county government was fast-tracking plans to establish a value addition centre that would include cold storage facilities for fishermen so that they could fetch good prices for their catch.
“The idea is to ensure the 1,000 metric tonnes reach the market. We want to explore the idea of having cold storage facilities at the airport to access the Great Lakes region,” he said at the county fisheries offices at Liwatoni in Mombasa yesterday.
“We want to train fisher folk on capacity building and diving so they can venture into deep sea fishing instead of the creeks.
“We want to establish and better enterprise in the blue economy.”
