Fishing scorecard coming soon
While the fisheries ministry has released the more than 5 000 companies that applied for
Within the next year the fisheries ministry will implement an annual performance evaluation to determine whether fishing rights holders will keep their quotas, have them increased, lowered, or completely scrapped.
Meanwhile, the names of the 5 176 applicants for 2018 fishing rights were made public yesterday, with the ministry intending to announce the successful right holders by the end of this year or early next year.
Although quotas for the nine categories of marine resources have not yet been set, the applications list shows that 1 852 entities applied for hake quotas, 1 663 entities applied to catch horse mackerel and 6 99 applications for monk were received.
Among the smaller applications are 155 for rock lobster quotas, 149 for line fish and 101 for large pelagic species, including tuna.
Speaking in parliament last week, fisheries minister Bernhardt Esau said since independence, fishing rights holders have “become accustomed to being allocated certain amounts of fishing quotas” which were adjusted from time to time.
This process was not aligned to measurable criteria and many existing rights holders “consider their current quota allocation levels as entitlement and hence find it difficult to accept a reduction in their quotas, especially when new rights holders are added to a particular fishery.”
The minister said this “entitlement mentality” could explain complaints made to the media by “some companies that have held rights since independence”.
Once the scorecard is introduced next year, fishing rights holders, depending on their scores, may receive enhanced quotas while others may receive little or no quota allocations, the minister explained.
Esau said a survey, which looked at the current quota system, found that many companies had not “sufficiently Namibianised their shareholding structure or invested in value addition for job creation”.
He said in light of the scorecard, “owning a fishing right will no longer imply that a company, or a person, will be automatically allocated a fishing quota annually,” unless their structure is such that it measurably benefits the country and its people.
Quotas will be allocated based on eight criteria of the scorecard and compliance with other aspects of the relevant legislation.
He said the scorecard would “give meaning to the urgent need to ensure that our fisheries benefit all Namibians, and that there is genuine empowerment of Namibians in the fisheries through ownership and ability to exercise their rights”.
The scorecard will not discourage foreign investment but instead boost genuine partnerships in the industry.
“There is an urgent need to implement similar measurable initiatives in all our renewable and non-renewable resources, so that we may give meaning to economic empowerment of Namibians, and ultimately, economic liberation,” Esau told members of parliament.
He intends to gazette regulations governing the allocation of fishing quotas within the next six months.
Old news
He said the current quota allocation is based on the Marine Resources Act but does not evaluate the performance of rights holders against measurable criteria.
He said the current quota allocation system has no mechanism to “increase Namibianisation of the fishing industry, does not have a clear reward system for job creation or investments in the sector and does not have clear mechanisms of discouraging quota trading, especially by Namibian rights holders.”
He said the implementation of the scorecard is expected to result in many benefits, such as a transparent and predictable allocation of fishing quotas, broad-based partition of previously disadvantaged Namibians, a predictable investment environment, and job creation.
Esau said intensive consultations had identified the need to balance the “legitimate objective of maximising profits on the part of the private sector and the need to maximise socioeconomic benefits on the part of government”.
JANA-MARI SMITH
Meanwhile, the names of the 5 176 applicants for 2018 fishing rights were made public yesterday, with the ministry intending to announce the successful right holders by the end of this year or early next year.
Although quotas for the nine categories of marine resources have not yet been set, the applications list shows that 1 852 entities applied for hake quotas, 1 663 entities applied to catch horse mackerel and 6 99 applications for monk were received.
Among the smaller applications are 155 for rock lobster quotas, 149 for line fish and 101 for large pelagic species, including tuna.
Speaking in parliament last week, fisheries minister Bernhardt Esau said since independence, fishing rights holders have “become accustomed to being allocated certain amounts of fishing quotas” which were adjusted from time to time.
This process was not aligned to measurable criteria and many existing rights holders “consider their current quota allocation levels as entitlement and hence find it difficult to accept a reduction in their quotas, especially when new rights holders are added to a particular fishery.”
The minister said this “entitlement mentality” could explain complaints made to the media by “some companies that have held rights since independence”.
Once the scorecard is introduced next year, fishing rights holders, depending on their scores, may receive enhanced quotas while others may receive little or no quota allocations, the minister explained.
Esau said a survey, which looked at the current quota system, found that many companies had not “sufficiently Namibianised their shareholding structure or invested in value addition for job creation”.
He said in light of the scorecard, “owning a fishing right will no longer imply that a company, or a person, will be automatically allocated a fishing quota annually,” unless their structure is such that it measurably benefits the country and its people.
Quotas will be allocated based on eight criteria of the scorecard and compliance with other aspects of the relevant legislation.
He said the scorecard would “give meaning to the urgent need to ensure that our fisheries benefit all Namibians, and that there is genuine empowerment of Namibians in the fisheries through ownership and ability to exercise their rights”.
The scorecard will not discourage foreign investment but instead boost genuine partnerships in the industry.
“There is an urgent need to implement similar measurable initiatives in all our renewable and non-renewable resources, so that we may give meaning to economic empowerment of Namibians, and ultimately, economic liberation,” Esau told members of parliament.
He intends to gazette regulations governing the allocation of fishing quotas within the next six months.
Old news
He said the current quota allocation is based on the Marine Resources Act but does not evaluate the performance of rights holders against measurable criteria.
He said the current quota allocation system has no mechanism to “increase Namibianisation of the fishing industry, does not have a clear reward system for job creation or investments in the sector and does not have clear mechanisms of discouraging quota trading, especially by Namibian rights holders.”
He said the implementation of the scorecard is expected to result in many benefits, such as a transparent and predictable allocation of fishing quotas, broad-based partition of previously disadvantaged Namibians, a predictable investment environment, and job creation.
Esau said intensive consultations had identified the need to balance the “legitimate objective of maximising profits on the part of the private sector and the need to maximise socioeconomic benefits on the part of government”.
JANA-MARI SMITH
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