COMESA region is endowed with marine and some of the most ecologically diverse freshwater systems, supporting millions of people with drinking water, food, transport, trade and livelihoods including the largest lakes in Africa, namely, Victoria, Tanganyika, Malawi and Tanna. Three major African rivers, namely, Nile, Congo and Zambezi are present in the region. The region’s 21 Member States comprise nine coastal countries, eight landlocked countries and four Ocean States. The estimated population of COMESA is about 583 million (2019 estimates), with a Gross Domestic Product of US$ 805 billion and a global export/import trade in goods worth US$ 324 billion.
COMESA countries have a great blue economy potential that is hugely underdeveloped or underutilised. Traditional sectors such as fisheries, tourism, energy, mineral extraction and marine and river transport are showing evidence of significant development capacities while emerging sectors such as aquaculture, renewable energy (hydro, wind, wave, tidal, solar), marine biotechnology and bioprospecting, blue carbon (carbon storage in mangroves, seagrass and salt marshes), desalinisation do not feature in national priority lists.
The emerging and promising sectors including blue fisheries and aquaculture, tourism, energy, transport /shipping, underwater extractive industries, environment, blue research and innovation, Blue marine biotechnology and bioprospecting remain underdeveloped in the COMESA region. The countries of the region and the COMESA Secretariat are facing strategic and technical challenges in the implementation of the Blue Economy. These challenges are largely interlinked and cut across all Blue Economy sectors and components. These challenges are strategic and technical in their features/characteristics, it needs consorted and harmonized efforts.