Introduction

The global aquaculture industry is growing rapidly, contributing significantly to food production, employment, and economic development. In Africa, the potential of aquaculture development for Africa’s economic growth is well recognized and supported with a considerable “blue food” demand that cannot be met by capture fisheries. The NEPAD-Fish for All Summit in 2005, Abuja, Nigeria, was a pivotal step in promoting aquaculture's role in Africa's development. Since 2020, Africa has seen over 11% growth in aquaculture, nearly twice as fast as the global rate, with a few countries growing at 12–23% per annum (Ragasa et al., 2022). This growth highlights significant potential for sustainable aquaculture in the continent but won't close the supply-demand gap without further transformation. However, nearly 20 years after the summit, Africa's potential remains largely untapped due to insufficient investment and poor infrastructure, despite aquaculture producing over 57% of global aquatic foods.

In Least Developed Countries (LDCs) globally and in particular within Africa, challenges persist in the development of the sector, hindering sustainable growth. These challenges include inadequate infrastructure, limited access to inputs, poor technical and managerial capacity constraints, weak value chain development, and impacts of climate change.

Addressing these challenges requires substantial financial resources, with private investments playing a crucial role. Governments, development partners and practitioners are increasingly focusing on leveraging investment in aquaculture through public-private partnerships (PPPs) and Global investment companies are exploring new opportunities to establish aquaculture businesses in the African continent. Although interest by governments, the private sector, and development finance institutions to invest in aquaculture value chains in Africa is increasing, current access to affordable finance for small- and medium-scale aquaculture enterprises and investors remains limited. A coordinated, strategic and innovative approach is needed to ensure that national, regional and continental policies, strategies and aspirations are met and that required initial investments are used to catalyse additional financing to fully realise sustainable and viable aquaculture value chains.

To address these issues, FAO and the World Bank, in partnership with the Aquaculture Network for Africa (ANAF) successfully organized a Special Day on “Unlocking the Potential of Sustainable Aquaculture in Africa” during the WAS AFRAQ23 in Zambia. Also participating was the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Building on the outcomes of this event an event is being organized at AFRAQ 2024 in Tunisia to enhance understanding of financing aquaculture investments in Africa with a focus on small- and medium-scale enterprises and the potential role of partnerships. This event will be achieved through an expanded and strengthened partnership with IFC, FAO, the African Union (AUDA-NEPAD), ANAF, AquaSpark, Gatsby Foundation, FutureFish and key regional aquaculture public and private sector stakeholders, among others.

The Objectives of this side event include:

1. Inform participants about initiatives, knowledge resources and partnerships undertaken by different organizations to enhance viable aquaculture investments.
2. Increasing awareness and understanding of challenges and opportunities for enhancing investments in aquaculture in Africa.

• Discuss available financial guidelines, tools, frameworks, insurance schemes, certification processes, de-risking mechanisms and knowledge resources.

1. Share experiences and strategies to transform these challenges into opportunities.

Expected output of the workshop

Meeting Report and Sector Specific recommendations for action towards viable financing and investment options and strategies for sustainable aquaculture value chains in African aquaculture.

Target audience

Public sector (e.g., government officers, public organizations, etc), private sector (e.g., farmers, associations, cooperatives, processors, exporters, feed companies, etc), investors, researchers, academia, and other related aquaculture stakeholders (e.g., certification companies, equipment, materials, genetics, additives, biosecurity, digital tools, AI solution providers).

Agenda