She said fish farming had the potential to overtake the production from marine fishing since the ocean was gradually becoming depleted due to over fishing.
Mrs Asmah said this when she interacted with some members of the Council of State led by Professor Adzei Bekoe, Chairman, and officials of some of the financial institutions during a visit to Tropo Farms Limited, a commercial aquaculture farm at Asutuare in the Eastern Region.
Tropo Farms is a private investment that started producing tilapia about four years ago with a harvesting capacity of between 12 tonnes to 14 tonnes of fish every fortnight with some fishes weighing as much as a kilogram and more and was mostly patronised by hotels and restaurants operators.
Wednesday's visit marked one of the harvesting periods of the farm and the Ministry of Fisheries organised the visit to give a first hand information to the Council of State Members and financial institution Managers on the viability of aquaculture in the country.
Mrs Asmah said investments in fish farming had the potentials of increasing the country's GDP since about 10 per cent of the land surface was covered with water and there were a number of land areas that could also be conveniently used for fish farming without interfering with crop farming productions.
She said the biggest problem facing investors was access to credit facilities, which the banks were unwilling to give hence the need for the first hand exposure for bankers and Council of State members for them to appreciate that there were potentials in the aquaculture industry.
Source: GNA