Maputo, Mozambique — The African Development Bank (ADB) is studying the possibility of financing a 10 million US dollar project to support artisanal fishing in the northern Mozambican provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado.

Mozambican Fisheries Minister, Cadmiel Muthemba, told the national news agency on Monday that negotiations with the bank have been going on since 2000, and "this year we will hold meetings to take the final decision".

The project is to cover the northernmost districts of Nampula, as well as the majority of the coastal districts of Cabo Delgado.

It intends to support the fishermen with improved fishing methods, and marketing of their catch.

Muthemba said "one of the main problems of our fishermen has to do with the conservation of the catch, since they lack the resources, and that obliges them at times to sell the product at a derisory price".

A similar project is already underway in the districts of Angoche, Moma and Mogincual, in Nampula.

Plans are underway to extend the project to the central provinces of Sofala and Zambezia.

Artisanal fishing is one of the main features of the fisheries ministry, said Muthemba, and because it contributes to the eradication of poverty "we must pay particular attention to small scale fishing".