Member of Parliament (MP) for Likoma Islands, Ashems Songwe has advised communities in the district to formulate fisheries cooperatives to generate more income.
Songwe made the call on Sunday during an interface meeting with community representatives aimed at discussing socio-economic issues affecting people in the constituency.
He noted that Likoma Island is one of the biggest producers of fish in the country yet it’s the people from the mainland who benefit more from it.
“People from the mainland buy fish from Likoma and make more money from selling it. Some of them export the fish to other countries. If our people in the district organise themselves into cooperatives, they will have an opportunity to export the fish themselves,” said Songwe.
He recommended value addition to the fish to ensure that it fetches higher prices, besides creating jobs and helping the council generate more revenue from the fishing industry.
Senior Chief Mkumpha III asked Songwe to facilitate transportation of more maize to Likoma to ease food shortages in the district.
“I also plead with you to ask relevant authorities to allow MV Chilembwe to be sailing twice on Saturday from Likoma to Nkhata Bay so that many people should be allowed to travel. As you may be aware that MV Ilala has gone for routine mentenance services and has been replaced by MV Chilembwe which has a small capacity,” Mkumpha said.
