AU and SADC Coastal States buy into FINSS Software

Between 28 September and 2 October, Feike and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission ran an African Union-World Bank funded training programme on the FINSS management software that Feike is distributing to fishing coastal states at no cost. FINSS is the acronym for the Fisheries Information and Statistical Systems software that allows users to effectively manage their entire fisheries licensing, administration, management and statistical components. Countries and organisations represented included Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya, as well as Seychelles and Madagascar. The South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Programme was also in attendance. The Benguela Current Commission was indirectly represented via the Namibian and Angolan representatives.

The attendees unanimously agreed to begin utilising the software and a user-report back session has been scheduled for April 2010. A second training session for west Africa has been provisionally scheduled for January 2010. FINSS is adaptable for use by commercial fishing companies interested in managing vessel deployments, harvesting, licensing and processing. the software is available at no charge and can be customised to suit individual user needs. The software is available in English, French and Portuguese and comes complete with comprehensive user and technical manuals.