Tanzania’s fisheries sector is pushing for more affordable and flexible financing to help women and young people participate in a value chain that supports more than 4.5 million livelihoods.
Fisheries and aquaculture provide about 430,000 direct jobs in Tanzania and contribute 1.8 percent of Mainland Tanzania’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 4.8 percent in Zanzibar, according to World Bank data.
The call for better financing came during a fisheries-sector financing discussion in Dar es Salaam, where the government and development partners highlighted the need for financial products tailored to the realities of fisheries businesses. The Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries’ Director of Aquaculture, Dr Nazael Madalla, said the government was working with various institutions to expand access to loans on favourable terms.
‘We believe that supporting fishermen and enabling them to increase their income is very important. Because of this, the Government has decided to open up opportunities and work with various institutions, including those in Tanzania Mainland, to provide loans on very favourable terms,’ he said.
Dr Madalla said the government was also promoting value addition so that fishers and other players could earn more from their products instead of selling fish in raw form.
‘We have also been working on adding value to fish rather than selling fish only in its raw form. Since 2022/23, we have been working extensively in this area, and we have witnessed significant progress,’ he said.
TradeMark Africa (TMA) Country Director Elibariki Shammy said financing needed to become a central part of efforts to develop the sector, given its contribution to jobs, food security and trade.
‘It is about business, about jobs, about food security. It’s about trade. It’s about investment. And it’s about livelihoods,’ he said.
Mr Shammy said the fisheries value chain extended beyond fishing to include input suppliers, fish farmers, aggregators, traders, transporters and processors, creating opportunities for women and young people.
However, he said conventional lending often failed to meet the needs of fisheries businesses, many of which were seasonal, informal and exposed to climate and market risks.
‘We should not think only about conventional loans from the financial institutions that are here. We should think about working capital financing,’ he said.
He also called for asset financing, digital financial services, insurance, guarantees and value-chain financing.
The discussion comes as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, TMA and the Mastercard Foundation implement a five-year programme aimed at empowering women and young people in fisheries through inclusive market access.
Launched in 2024 in seven African countries, including Tanzania, the programme aims to create 242,000 work opportunities by 2028 and increase fish trade by about $100 million.
TMA Programme Manager Paveen Mbeda said the programme was considering group guarantees for cooperatives and associations whose members lacked conventional collateral.
She said it would also explore credit financing and microinsurance to address risks associated with weather and climate change.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), fisheries and aquaculture supported an estimated 600 million livelihoods globally in 2024, with Africa accounting for about 6.1 million direct jobs in the primary sector.
Mr Shammy said the financing discussions were intended to help develop solutions that addressed the needs of both financial institutions and fisheries businesses.
‘The idea here is not to probe the financial sector to inject money where they cannot get it back. It’s about co-creating solutions,’ he said.