A call for inclusive, sustainable growth to unlock the potential of Kenya’s fisheries sector

• by Victor Kiprop, Doreen Njau and Selfine Onyango
• Jul 17, 2025
• 4 min

At a Kisumu workshop under the Women and Youth Economic Empowerment in Fisheries through Inclusive Market Access program, stakeholders called for inclusive reforms to unlock Kenya’s fisheries sector and boost trade.

The national fisheries workshop for stakeholders deliberated on policy coordination, gender inclusion, and trade opportunities under Kenya’s Fisheries Programme.

Kenya’s fisheries sector holds immense potential to drive inclusive economic growth and regional trade, but only if policies are harmonised, coordination is strengthened, and women and youth are fully empowered to participate meaningfully.

This was the call to action from stakeholders who gathered in Kisumu from 26^th to 27^th June 2025 for a workshop on national fisheries that sought to strengthen cross-border trade and unlock opportunities for women and youth in the sector.

The two-day event was convened under the Women and Youth Economic Empowerment in Fisheries through Inclusive Market Access program, a four-year initiative led by TradeMark Africa and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. The initiative is underway in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Zambia, Nigeria, across 11 border crossings, and in select island states in Africa.

The programme seeks to dismantle structural barriers that hold women and youth back from fully participating in the fisheries value chain to enhance their potential for economic growth. The main objectives are to provide training, strengthen supply chain linkages, promote digital solutions, simplify trade regulations, enforce standards, and facilitate cross-border market access. The target is to create or enable more than 240,000 meaningful, sustainable, and decent jobs by 2028.

At the Kisumu workshop, a range of actors, which included county and national government officials, fishers, traders, researchers, youth and women leaders, private sector representatives, and civil society organisations, convened to identify shared priorities for the sector’s transformation.

“We propose to create a strategic framework to clarify roles, foster innovation, and ensure women and youth are part of the solution,” said Mathews Wanjala, Senior Programme Manager for Market Development and Private Sector Engagement at TradeMark Africa. He noted that the forum presented a valuable opportunity for public and private sector actors, researchers, and policymakers “to reflect on the challenges and opportunities in cross-border trade within the sector.”

Despite its potential, the fisheries sector continues to suffer from fragmented policies and inconsistent enforcement across countries and borders. The forum emphasized the urgent need for reforms to create a more supportive environment for small-scale traders and cross-border commerce.

Proposals included alignment of permits, pricing, taxation, and license frameworks. It also included clarification of institutional mandates to reduce duplication and improve enforcement of existing legislation. Participants also called for stronger engagement with regional blocs, such as the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), to ensure member states uphold their shared commitments.

“It is not enough to have harmonised protocols on paper. The problem is implementation,” said Emma Adongo, a fish trader and youth leader with the Busia Women Cross-Border SACCO. She further emphasised that progress will remain limited unless all relevant actors follow through on implementation, particularly on policies designed to support women and youth.

The workshop also strongly emphasised addressing social and financial barriers that disproportionately affect women and youth in fisheries and aquaculture, especially those working in informal or cross-border contexts. “Starting a fish business can be costly. Our appeal to the private sector and development partners is to support us in accessing loans on favourable terms to expand our businesses,” Ms Adongo added.

Additional recommendations included the need to improve access to financial services for female traders, promote collective marketing, and enhance transparency and accountability within SACCOs. Investment in market infrastructure, such as hygienic storage and handling facilities and crèches at landing sites, was also proposed to improve work conditions for women in the sector.

Further suggested measures included ways to expand gender sensitisation and capacity-building for shared household decision-making, provide mentorship and startup capital for youth (particularly in aquaculture), and strengthen cooperatives in border areas to boost the bargaining power of women and youth traders in the fisheries sector and protect traders from exploitation.

Participants also advocated for the establishment of a national digital platform to facilitate sector-wide knowledge exchange, greater collaboration with financial institutions and insurers, and the development of efficient monitoring and evaluation systems to track the impact of interventions.

“The aquaculture and blue economy sectors are full of promise. Young people bring energy and drive. If we can reduce production costs, especially for feed, and link them with finance, they can transform the sector,” said Samson Kidera, Regional Coordinator at the Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs.