The managing director of Afric Fishing Company, Andrew P Ganda, has explained to journalists about the achievement of his company which is located at Kingtom, Freetown.
Giving a background of the company, he said, “Afric Fishing Company is a business company founded primarily to provide fish protein for Sierra Leoneans who can hardly afford animal protein which is in very short supply thus rendering it very expensive”.
Mr Ganda noted that, “majority of Sierra Leoneans are poor that is why Afric Fishing Company ensures that its fish products are comparatively cheap and therefore affordable to averages citizens giving them the opportunity to maintain a balance diet”.
He added that Afric Fishing Company was also working on improving its facilities to enable it commence the export of fish products to other communities.
The managing director disclosed that during the first six of its existence, the company registered three fishing trawlers.
Mr Ganda maintained that fishes discharged from the vessels were immediately sold out virtually invalidating the need for storage.
Giving the present profile of the company, Mr Ganda said 75% of the commanding shares were largely owned by a Sierra Leonean, adding that the annual turnover of the company under normal operations stood at 1.5 Million dollars.
The managing director averred that a new cold store situated at Bum Defense Kingtom, which had recently been constructed to serve as the main sales outlet of the company.
He pointed out that the cold store had a capacity of 320MT and could attain freezing temperature as low as 320 Celsius and that it was electrically powered by a 100KVA Perkins generating plant.
Mr Ganda further said the company owned a number of vehicles among them two four wheel drives, two mini-vans and SUV car and single cabin van.
He stated that the company also operated a guesthouse, situated at Wilkinson Road which serves to host the company’s guests and foreign sailors requiring medical treatment.
The company he said discharged 6000 cartons of fish on a weekly basis.