Kinshasa, July 11th, 2021 (CPA).- The President of the Republic, Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, inaugurated, on Saturday, the very first Cooperative of fishing and fish marketing (COPECOP), during a ceremony organized in Kinkole city, in the urban-rural municipality of N’Sele.
During a direct exchange between the Head of State and about fifty fishermen, in the presence of the Ministers in charge of Fisheries and Livestock, Adrien Bokele, that of Land Affairs, Molendo Sakombi, and the Governor of Kinshasa city, Gentiny Ngobila, the importance of regulating the river fishing profession and the development of a fishermen’s charter was noted, in order to ban certain predatory fishing practices.
According to COPECOP members, some craftsmen use impregnated mosquito nets as fishing nets.
To boost this sector which contributes to supplying Kinshasa city with fish, the Head of State Felix envisaged the gradual modernization of the fishing sector while insisting on the supervision of artisanal fishermen.
Through the Ministry in charge of Fisheries and Livestock, it was recommended that a permanent dialogue be maintained between fishermen and the Congolese state.
COPECOP, a pilot project for the supervision of fishermen from Malebo pool, intends to affiliate the fishermen of the pool estimated to more than 15,000 artisanal professionals spread over ten sites in particular, Kinkole, Kingabwa, Gombe, Ngamandjo, Kinsuka and others.
This pilot project is expected to be duplicated throughout the national territory in order not only to improve and facilitate the marketing of fishery products, but also to strengthen the organizational capacities of its members, the objective being to achieve optimal production supposed to meet the food needs of the population.
The administrative building inaugurated and visited on Saturday by the Head of State Felix Tshisekedi will have to house a large cold room for the conservation of fish, a clinic and a mutual medical care for fishermen and their families.
COPECOP is administered by a Board of Directors and a general management made up of fishermen and their partners.
COPECOP thanks the Head of State for keeping his word
COPECOP general director, Claude Zinga, thanked the Head of State for keeping his word by enforcing all the decisions taken during his visit to the site on March 7th, 2021.
It is about the restitution of the despoiled port to the sinners. All that remains is to build a fish market, a cold room, a medical center and an ice factory there.
On the same occasion, he pleaded for much more institutional support in order to modernize this sector by eliminating, among other things, the intermediaries who create the outbidding in the fish sales circuit, before expressing his wish to develop aquaculture, an idea encouraged by the Head of State Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo.
He also thanked all the partners who helped bring this project to fruition, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for its supervision and the United Nations Population Fund. (UNFPA) which is involved in the medical care of fishermen and their dependents.
For his part, the Minister in charge of Fisheries and Livestock placed particular emphasis on the merits of this cooperative which, he said, will help improve the food and nutritional security of the population, reduce precariousness in the fishing community, to increase the production of fishery products and to organize their conservation and, why not, their processing.
COPECOP, he added, will benefit from the technical support of his ministry, which intends to invest in ensuring certain sustainability for the happiness of the fishing community.
The ceremony ended with the visit to the facilities after the symbolic ribbon was cut.
The inauguration of COPECOP is a response from the Head of State to the concerns of the fishermen of Malebo pool, which were transmitted to him, 4 months ago, during his first descent in this fishing village, located about twenty km from downtown Kinshasa.
Indeed, on March 7th, receiving a hundred fishermen from Kinkole, the President of the Republic Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo had undertaken to favorably accede to the requests of fishing professionals, namely: the retrocession of the port of the fishermen of Kinkole looted. by private individuals, the development of the access road to this port as well as the construction of a landing stage, the development of a place for the sale of fishing products as well as the organization of the fishing industry through supervisory structures.
All of these promises are being made. The Ministry in charge of Land Affairs has already issued a decree delimiting the port and it remains to evacuate the predators from space. ACP/
