Volta region chapter of the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council (GNCFC) has appealed to President Nana Akufo-Addo to retain in office the minister for fisheries and aquaculture development Madam Mavis Hawa Koomson.
Secretary to the regional council, Lambert Yaovi Gada, addressing a press conference on Tuesday December 27, 2022 at Adina in the Ketu South municipality of the Volta region, said, over the past fifteen years, the fishing industry has never had a hard working and result driven minister like the current one.
“Madam Hawa Koomson has implemented lots of stringent interventions with strict adherence to the fisheries act (Act 625) which has started yeilding results, hence, our constant harvesting of fish after the 2022 fishing closed season,” he stated.
According to the fishers, a news item published by Ghanaweb on December 22, that sought to suggest that madam Hawa Koomson is likely to be reshuffled from the fisheries ministry in an impending ministerial reshuffle by President Akufo-Addo has “thrown the entire artisanal fisheries stakeholders into a state of disarray”.
They believe the current sector minister has an unfinished business which is very critical to the very survival and livelihoods of our artisanal fishers along the coast.
The fishers said although the President has the exclusive power to reshuffle his appointees, they were of the conviction that “this current minister is turning around the near collapsed fisheries industry of Ghana for the better and must be allowed to continue and complete the transformational agenda that she has started – though the challenges are many, she is tackling them head on and we can all attest to the fact that she is doing marvelously well and must be retained in the interest of the sector.
The fishers also called on the National president and executives of the council to “rise and act swiftly to save the industry.”
By Leo Nelson || Ghananewsonline.com.gh