The First Financing and Investment Session was held during the Africa’s inaugural AFRAQ Conference in Alexandria, Egypt in March 2022. To continue the dialogue towards tangible results, the 2 nd Finance and Investment Session during AFRAQ23 will build from these discussions and set forth a roadmap.
The potential of aquaculture development for Africa’s economic growth is well recognized and supported with a considerable “blue food” demand that is consistently unmet by capture fisheries. A great deal of projects both globally and in Africa, have been financed with mixed results. There is increasing interest by the private sector, development finance institutions and governments to invest in aquaculture value chains in Africa. Global investment companies are exploring opportunities to establish financing and investment mechanisms to further support aquaculture businesses in the African continent, including those that are not yet of direct commercial interest to the commercial companies. A coordinated, strategic and innovative approach to financing and investment is needed to ensure that national, regional and continental policies, strategies and aspirations are met and that initial investments are used to catalyze additional financing to fully realise aquaculture value chains in a viable and sustainable manner.
The First Financing and Investment Session organized by AUDA-NEPAD and Aqua-Spark, as part of its Aqua Invest initiative aimed at advocating for and attracting investment into sustainable aquaculture, and held during the 2022 AFRAQ Conference, successfully convened a wide range of stakeholders to share experiences and identify some of the priority actions. These ranged from improving coherency in the national and regional policy environment, to promoting innovative investment models, and leveraging existing financial instruments to support the small-scale entrepreneurs in Africa, to establishing a pan-African mechanism for collecting and sharing information on aquaculture issues and investment opportunities.
Using the above as a point of departure, a small informal multi-stakeholder group of interested organizations and investors, including AUDA-NEPAD, Aqua-Spark, ACMS, Future Fish, Gatsby Africa, IFC, Rockefeller Foundation, WAS Africa Chapter and the World Bank, was established. This group collaborated since the last AFRAQ event to share knowledge and identify ways to support aquaculture businesses through increased investments into sustainable aquaculture within the region. In order to drive tangible results for finance and investment into the industry, the 2 nd Finance and Investment Session during AFRAQ23 will build from these discussions and set forth a roadmap. This session will also provide a base for other discussions covering investment in African aquaculture, such as the FAO, WB, ANAF workshop on Unlocking the Potential of Sustainable Aquaculture in Africa.
The overall goal of this session is to serve as a platform to share progress, lessons and best practices on financing and investment for development of aquaculture on the continent, and to gather feedback on the next steps. The objectives of the session are to:
The Financing and Investment session at AFRAQ23 will seek to further the ongoing innovative mechanisms in which respective stakeholders can engage with and support industry development over the short - medium - long term.