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Promotion of Sustainable Commercial Aquaculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

Volume 2: Investment and Economic Feasibility

Document format: pdf

Publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization

Creation date: 2002

This volume of the report on the promotion of sustainable commercial aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa discusses the difficult access to investment capital, one of the major obstacles to the development of sustainable commercial aquaculture in the region. The problem arises from a lack of collateral, excessively high interest rates on loans, bankers' perceptions that aquaculture carries a particularly high risk of failure, a lack of knowledge, by farmers, of the modalities of applying for loans and a lack or limited information, on the part of lenders, of commercially successful aquaculture enterprises in the region. While some of the lenders' perceptions are valid, particularly in instances where the industry is not yet established and difficulties could occur as a result of local unavailability of necessary inputs, the market is untested and there are no examples of commercial success that could offer an indication of viability, preliminary evidence seems to indicate that banks tend to exaggerate the likelihood of failure of commercial aquaculture projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Borrowers need to be able to formulate and present their business proposals in a precise and concise manner that effectively offers the lender a comprehensive picture of the proposed business, communicates how they expect to profit from the proposed enterprises and generate the funds for the repayment of the loans sought. The problem of collateral could be tackled through the use of no-collateral strategies such as group lending, village banks and solidarity groups, alternative collaterals such as titled land and moveable property, which in many cases bespeaks the need for legal and regulatory reforms and through government loan guarantees. When affordable, government loan guarantees and subsidized interest rates could also be used to lessen the problem of high interest rates.

Key Words: UN • FAO • Sub-Saharan Africa • Africa • Production Economics • Developmental Economics