From Dependency to Ownership: Turning Africa's Maritime Resources Into Economic Power

"Blue economy is beyond fish, and while it's a very traditional sector [...], it encompasses a whole lot more [...]: in the African context, we define the economy as the sustainable use of ocean resources: land, inland, freshwater, and all water bodies. We talk about things like shipping, tourism, and seabed mining; there's a whole lot of biotechnology, bioprospecting [...]. The blue economy can play a very transformative role for Africa's economic sovereignty by ensuring that African countries move from dependency to ownership [...]. It's a very good enabler for food security in Africa. So the first thing would be to move from just saying blue economy, but also to say regenerative blue economy. And why this is important is because, unlike the sustainable use of the blue economy, which is just teaching you how to use the resources in a sustainable manner, the regenerative blue economy teaches the ocean how to replenish [...]. We need to have ownership, and secondly, we need to be innovative [...]. We need to think about how we bring all players on board beyond the scientists, the policymakers, the financial experts, and the economists on board. But also we need to see how we harness all the value chains of the sector," Etta disclosed.