Fish Value chain developer calls for investment in sector to tackle youth employment

Daniel Kansake, a Fish Value Chain Development expert, has called for deliberate investments in the fish farming industry to exploit the huge potential to address the growing youth employment crisis in the country.

Kansake, a known fish farmer himself, is urging the government to create an enabling environment, including making available funding support systems, to encourage the youth to take up the venture as a fulltime source of livelihood.

“If we are able to get the necessary atmosphere in terms of legal framework, support base and all those things, this area can really absorb a huge chunk of our youth who are unemployed.”

Speaking on the Big Mike Breakfast Show on Tuesday February 11, 2025, Kansake intimated that the fisheries sector is a gold mine the government must begin to look at for income generation to address its development needs.

Kansake said although individuals and non-governmental organizations had taken early lead in that, hurdles such as the fast depletion of fish resources in water bodies, were drawing back the sector.

He has, therefore, called for government attention by way of investments and addressing activities such as mining in water bodies, which have a negative impact on aquaculture and aquatic life.

“Tono used to be the source of fish for us here in Northern Ghana especially in the Upper East Region, but these days when you go, you realize the catch is very low.”

He has also urged the youth in the Upper East Region to leverage on the gap between the demand for fish and production, and go into fish farming as a source of livelihood.

Mike 105.3 FM | Navrongo | David Adapuna