Fisheries Growth and its Economic Contribution to Zanzibar

Abstract

This paper examines the contribution of fishing on economic growth of Zanzibar, it also established the relationship between values collected from fisheries and economic growth of Zanzibar. The study used secondary data obtained from Zanzibar Statistical Abstracts downloaded from the website of the Office of Chief Government Statistician and other resources from different websites. The data covered the period from 2002 to 2023. The result showed the fish production in Zanzibar increased by a fold of 3.9 in a period of 22 years, starting form 20,343.tonnes in 2002 to 80,085 tonnes in 2023, the value of fish produced increased in Zanzibar by a fold of 45.4 in a period of 22 years, starting form TZS 12.537295 Billion in 2002 to TZS 569.080 Billion in 2023. The contribution of fisheries to the economic growth shows a continual increase and decrease at different time periods, it increased from 1.1% to 5.8% in 2015, then decreased to 5.5 % then increased to a maximum of 15.1% in 2023. The regression result for fisheries values, fish production and economic growth revealed positive significant coefficient of 0.3041 between fisheries value and economic growth and this suggested that the two variables have positive relationship, on the other hand the regression revealed positive but not significant coefficient of 00.0936 between fisheries production and economic growth.

Keywords: fisheries production, fisheries value, contribution, productivity, Zanzibar.

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/16-4-04

Publication date: June 30th 2025