A Norwegian-funded aquaculture project in East Africa has helped establish five training and distribution hubs that aim to train aquaculture entrepreneurs, scale sustainable seafood production, and boost food security.
The EUR 2 million (USD 2.3 million) Samaki Poa project was launched in 2022 and implemented in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. The initiative helped establish facilities that offer both practical and digital training on the entire aquaculture value chain.
Besides training, the hubs, two of which are located in Kenya and Uganda and one of which is located in Rwanda, have also granted fish farmers access to quality fingerlings, as well as direct connections to other public and private sector aquaculture stakeholders.
Claudy Luft, an emerging markets advisor at Dutch consulting firm Larive International, which helped launch the project, told SeafoodSource Samaki Poa has helped not only in the uptake of technology but by making practical knowledge accessible to many marginalized fish-farming innovators, including women and youth.
She added that Samaki Poa’s training materials, videos, and graphics have now attracted interest from beyond East Africa, “with signups from West Africa, Egypt, South Africa, and Zambia, which was quite impressive.”
Lattice Consulting Technical Project Manager John Erick told SeafoodSource the project helped beneficiaries learn such practices as recordkeeping and financial management, endearing them more to conventional financial lenders in the region.
“Lending institutions such as banks view aquaculture as a risky sector and rightly so. Through Samaki Poa training, fish farmers are able to adopt good business practices, which in one way or the other derisks their enterprises and makes it easier for lenders to consider them for credit,” he said.
Although Samaki Poa did not have a direct financing component for fish farmers, Erick said the project still aided in value creation.
“What sets Samaki Poa apart is this creation of an ecosystem that facilitates the integration of all the actors along the entire sector value chain," he said.
By the time Samaki Poa concluded in June, Luft said around 2,700 aquaculture entrepreneurs had received training directly at the hubs and more than 13,000 individuals from over 35 African countries had accessed the project's digital learning platform.
The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) provided financing for Samaki Poa, while Larive International acted as the project manager. Other partners included animal nutrition companies Tunga Nutrition and Skretting, which provided quality fish feed, while Lattice Consulting led the Samaki Poa training component.
