Dr Jemimah Etornam Kassah, a fisheries scientist, says unsustainable fishing practices and their resultant decline in the country’s fish stock have dire socio-economic implications for the Ghanaian society.

She said the fisheries sector of Ghana provided both direct and indirect employment to about 10 per cent of the country’s population, therefore, anything that affected the sector would have a rippling effect on the socio-economic lives of people in the value chain.

“If we have a collapse of the fisheries sector, the people going to be affected are not just the fishermen, but every other player or actor along the value chain, from mechanics to outboard motor repairers to gear developers and boat builders.”

“All these people are having their livelihoods threatened,” she said during a Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) media forum on sustainable fishing practices.

Dr Kassah, a Lecturer at the Department of Biology Education, University of Education, Winneba, observed that due to low catches currently, families dependent on the fisheries sector were facing a lot of pressure, with some experiencing low-income levels while some women did not get fish to smoke.

“What happens then in the coastal communities is that there are high levels of depression and people are hypertensive, in addition to other health issues due to increased stress,” she said.

“Even though a lot is being done to reduce the rate of child trafficking in Ghana, because of low catches, there have been reports of families in coastal communities having to make their children to serve as domestic servants with other families, which is truncating their schooling, among other things.”

The fisheries scientist said fish had become expensive and if medical officers were advising parents to, for example, add powdered sardinella to the diet of toddlers while the price of herrings had gone up, it would be difficult for low-income mothers to ensure their children got the adequate protein needs.

She added that the situation did not only affect the fishing communities but also every actor in the value chain, hence the need for the nation to work towards preventing the depletion of the fish stock.

The 3iAfrica summit has ended with a call for stronger partnerships between governments, the private sector, and other stakeholders to turn ideas into actionable plans for Africa’s sustainable development.

Many of the participants who spoke with the Ghana News Agency described the summit as a laudable step in drawing African experiences and transforming them into policies and programmes for the continent’s growth.

They called for an all-encompassing approach to generate catalytic domestic capital among banks and investors into impactful innovations of Africans, including infrastructure development.

They also urged governments across the continent to create an enabling regulatory framework to enable Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) who provide financial and digital technology services to thrive.

That, they said, would help in quickening intra-continental trade, and increase cross-border payments to strengthen local currencies, engender financial inclusion, and generate employment for the continent’s youthful population.

“This summit has created synergies; at the vendors’ booth, there have been a lot of investor conversations, connections between policymakers and customers, which is a good start,” Ms Awurabena Agyeman, Co-Founder, Wear Ghana said.

The young entrepreneur added that, “this is very positive, but it should not end here. Let’s now act build spaces for businesses, and it’s time to do it ourselves as a continent.”

Speaking exclusively with GNA, Mr Kwamina Duker, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Development Bank Ghana (DBG), said the summit had demonstrated that the continent has people who can transform it.

“The main thing is the collaboration that we’ve seen over the last three-days; we have everything here to make it happen. We have the businessmen, policymakers, banks, so let’s make it work,” he said.

Mr Kwame Oppong, Director, fintech and Innovation, BoG, who presented the key outcomes at the end of the summit, also echoed the call for all stakeholders to act upon the decisions that had come out of the conference.

“Let us harness the boundless potential unveiled here, translate inspiration into action and ensure that the spirit of collaboration and innovation that defined this summit becomes a permanent fixture in Africa’s digital narrative,” he said.

The 3i Africa Summit is an initiative jointly developed by the Bank of Ghana, the Development Bank Ghana, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, supported by Elevandi.

The summit spearheaded discussions on addressing key growth and investment opportunities, and explored how market players in the financial ecosystem are leapfrogging in digital transformation with a call for action.

During the summit, Ghana signed a US$100 million deal between DBG and Proxtera – a Singaporean fintech company, to make loans easily accessible to Ghanaian SMEs through a digital platform.

There was also a partnership agreement between Fidelity Bank and Proxtera, to provide a comprehensive digital solution, including finance and business skills to SMEs through the Ghana Integrated Financial Ecosystem (GIFE) platform.