The conversations around Blue Economy (BE) in the last decade, particularly in Africa has taken an interesting dimension which demands continuous engagement by stakeholders, academia, and governments across the continent. This paper seeks to advance the discourse, using strategic management approach to beam more lights on the dynamics of wealth creating opportunities around Africa’s marine and aquatic life; the challenges, opportunities, setbacks, solutions and resolutions, while setting strategic agenda for harnessing the potentials for Africa’s economic growth and posterity.
The blue economy is often characterized by three conjoined elements of economic, social, and environmental pivots. It is expected that this will generate an equipoise in Africa’s economic advancement, social balance (as may be experienced in gainful workforce engagement and appreciable drop in poverty index), and ecological conservation. It is therefore imperative that this paper gives form to the agitation for a wholistic distillation of the strategic management approach to ensuring that fisheries and aquaculture enterprise in the continent is clearly defined with its trajectories and potentialities for a more prosperous continental economy.
This paper seeks to show how deep-pocket capital investment, the accessibility of electric storage, a better level of trade openness, exports, and sustainable ocean management policies will favourably influence aquaculture activities, while the challenges of overfishing, climate change, marine pollution, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels; and ineffective ocean management threaten the marine ecosystems.
The appreciation of blue economy through marine fish stocks and the fisheries they support, play a dynamic role in meeting the food and dietary security of millions of African people, hence the intentionality that must be deployed in building sustainable wealth and nutritional values in this regard.
Understanding and appropriating the key drivers of the blue economy is a critical path to unlocking the vaults of marine wealth, particularly as it relates to fisheries and aquaculture. The onus is therefore on the paper to offer practical and strategic direction to the resolution of the issues raised in the contemplations.