Gov't set to resolve premix challenges - Fisheries Minister

Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development says government is working around the clock to resolve issues relating to premix fuel and ensure that fishermen get the fuel to power their activities.

She said the government was very much concern about the continuous complaint by the fisher folks over premix fuel and so every effort were being made to enable the fishermen gets the right quantities of premix at the right prices and at the right time.

“We want to sanitize the situation and to improve the fishing community by developing the fishing areas” Ms Ayittey said at a meeting with stakeholders made up of members of the National Premix Committee (NPC), National Premix Secretariat, (NPS), Landing Beach Committees (LBC), National Fishers Association of Ghana, (NAFAG), Fisheries Commission, among others held in Accra on Friday.

The inception meeting was used to assess the performance of the NPC and LBC and also to inform the committee members about new measures being taken by the Fisheries Ministry to address the many challenges including the diversion of fuel to unauthorized recipients and sales of fuel at prices above recommended prices with adverse impact on the operations of fishermen and loss of revenue to government.

Ms Ayittey said the Ministry had engaged a consultancy firm, Kwame Asante and Associates (KAA) to study previous report of the premix situation and investigate the whole issues and come out with recommendations that would help resolve the issues.

Ms Ayittey said the Ministry also intends to develop the fishing communities through the 50 per cent revenue share from premix fuel that are channeled to develop the fishing communities.

She noted that an award scheme would thus be introduced to award best fishing communities that use such premix revenue to develop the areas.

The award would include best managed outlet, best project, best sanitation, alongside a certificate, citation and some money to winning communities as a way to motivate them and change people's habits, Ms Ayittey said.

Mr. Kwame Asante, Managing Director, of KAA said the firm had been engaged to carry out the thoroughly investigation relating to the entire premix saga and come out with the real issues and solutions within five months period and that full cooperation of all stakeholders would be needed to attain the best result.

He said: “we want to investigate whether the product get to those it is intended for, whether they get it on time and at the appropriate prices. We will be visiting all 320 landing beaches and all fishing communities to look into the issues.”