Côte d'Ivoire Invests $28M to Reclaim Fish Industry

West Africa has some of the world's richest natural resources, yet the region imports more than $2 billion worth of fish annually to feed its people. That paradox is finally coming to an end as Côte d'Ivoire leads a movement to rebuild the region's fishing industry from the ground up.

Fish provides two-thirds of all animal protein in West African diets, starring in beloved dishes like Ivorian poisson braisé and Senegalese thieboudienne. But illegal fishing has cost the region $9 billion per year, while climate change has pushed local catch rates down and forced fish consumption to drop from 13 kilograms per person in 2008 to just 11.5 kilograms today.

Côte d'Ivoire is fighting back with a comprehensive plan to grow its aquaculture sector. The country launched the $25.6 million ProDeCAP project to improve marine, lagoon, and inland fisheries while building up commercial fish breeding systems. The initiative aims to boost annual production by 35,000 tons and directly or indirectly benefit around 700,000 people, half of them women.

The nation is also investing $3 million in a new Aquaculture Research Innovation Hub led by WorldFish, a global research center with 50 years of expertise. The hub will focus on improving fish feed, genetics, and health to help the sector leapfrog outdated practices. In 2023 alone, WorldFish trained nearly 120,000 small-scale fishers and farmers and helped produce 436,600 tons of farmed fish using improved technologies.

Another program called PSTACI focuses on four key areas: creating jobs for young people in rural areas, piloting innovative demonstration projects to attract private investment, strengthening governance, and boosting national capacity for supplying fish products. These policies work together to build a complete value chain from breeding to processing to sales.

The Ripple Effect

The transformation goes far beyond catching more fish. Every stage of the growing aquaculture sector creates new job opportunities, especially for women who can find work processing and selling fish and other aquatic foods. Young people in coastal and inland communities now have career paths that didn't exist before.

When domestic fish production increases, families can afford more nutritious protein while spending less money on expensive imports. The $2 billion that once flowed out of West Africa can now stay in local communities, building schools, roads, and businesses. Neighboring countries are watching Côte d'Ivoire's success closely, ready to adopt similar strategies.

West Africa has always had the natural resources and the appetite for a thriving fishing industry. Now it has the investments, policies, and partnerships to make that vision real, creating a wave of opportunity across the entire blue economy.