Ministry and stakeholders working to address perennial shortage of premix fuel – Minister

The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development is working with relevant stakeholders to ensure the availability of premix fuel, Madam Mavis Hawa Koomson, the sector minister has said.

She said once the goal of addressing the perennial shortage of premix fuel was met, there would be an equitable distribution of premix fuel to landing beaches to mitigate the impact of the shortages experienced.

Madam Koomson was on the floor of Parliament on Thursday to answer a question asked by Dr Kwabena Donkor, the Member of Parliament for Pru East, on steps the ministry was taking to end the perennial shortage of premix fuel in the Constituency, particularly Yeji.

She admitted that since March 2022, the premix fuel supply had been irregular.

However, allocations of premix fuel to landing beaches of the various fishing communities were based on the number of motorised canoes and fishing activities.

“Mr Speaker, though premix fuel is allocated for fishing, Yeji as a transport community uses part of our premix fuel for both fishing and transportation,” she said.

According to Madam Koomson, as part of measures to streamline premix fuel allocation, it would be based on the number of canoes and level of fishing.

In addition, she said an Electronic Vehicle Tracking System was being implemented by the National Premix Fuel Secretariat (NPFS) in collaboration with the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) which enabled regulators to strictly monitor supplies to designated landing beaches including communities along the Volta Lake.

“Mr Speaker, there is also an intermittent update of canoe record through canoe frame surveys,” she said.

Source: GNA