By Paschal Emeka
Abuja
The Africa Blue Economy Roundtable, (ABER), has declared that Africa’s maritime narrative is being shaped daily by women. Chief Executive Officer and Convener, Dr. Piriye Kiyaramo, made the declaration at the 2026 World Seafarers Day Commemoration in Douala, describing women as “Guardians of Food and Income, Builders of Knowledge, Leaders Breaking the Tide, and Agents of Reconciliation.”
Speaking through Captain Young Patrice, ABER Regional Facilitator for Central Africa, Dr. Kiyaramo said women handle over 60% of post-harvest fisheries work across West, East, North, Central and Southern Africa. He cited Limbe markets in Cameroon as an example, where women transform the day’s catch into nutrition, livelihoods, and education. “They are seafarers of the shoreline,” he said.
“Today, on World Seafarers Day, the world honours the 1.8 million men and women who keep global trade afloat. For ABER, this day carries deeper meaning. It is a day to correct a narrative and to crown the unseen,” Dr. Kiyaramo’s address read. He argued that ‘seafarer’ has for too long been defined only by the deck of a ship.
From Cape Town to Mombasa, and from Brass Island and Koluama in Bayelsa State to Zanzibar in Tanzania, African women scientists and innovators are mapping oceans, protecting fish stocks, and decoding climate change, he said. “Research is navigation,” he noted, positioning science as a critical part of maritime work.
Dr. Kiyaramo said women now command vessels, manage ports, and chair maritime boards. “Every glass ceiling shattered at sea opens a channel for the next generation,” he stated, describing their leadership as a structural shift in Africa’s blue economy.
Where oil spills, illegal fishing, and erosion spark conflict, he said, women plant mangroves, mediate disputes, and restore trust. “They turn contested waters into shared wealth,” he added, framing their role as both environmental and social.
Seafarers Day is not a gesture. It is justice. It is strategy. Because when a woman of the sea rises, a family is fed, a coastline is protected, and a nation grows stronger,” he said, linking women’s leadership to food security, environmental protection, and economic growth.
He recalled that ABER was conceived in 2018 to answer, “Where is Africa’s voice in the global blue economy?” Today, he said, ABER connects classrooms to coastlines by training teachers as Ocean Stewards, links women cooperatives to markets and finance, blends indigenous knowledge with science for mangrove restoration, and runs Blue Justice Desks to move from conflict to cooperation.
ABER’s vision, he said, is “a prosperous, just, and climate-resilient Africa where coastal communities own and benefit from their ocean wealth.” That means “Blue Jobs, Not Just Promises. Blue Education for All. And Blue Justice at every policy table.”
“To every woman mending nets at dawn, every captain at the helm, every scientist reading the tide, every mother processing fish under the sun — ABER sees you. Africa sees you. The ocean remembers you,” he said. He urged stakeholders to move “from applause to action. From recognition to remuneration,” adding, “the future of Africa is not only green. It is blue. And it is female.”
The high point of the Douala event was the conferment of the Africa Blue Economy Heroine Award on 30 outstanding women across Africa’s five regions. Head of the Women Wing of ABER, Sophie De Sylvie DJOUFA TIEMAGNI, received the award on behalf of the cohort and was named “Captain of the Blue Future.”
Receiving the award, Ms. DJOUFA TIEMAGNI said: “This award is not an accomplishment, but an invitation to work even harder. Africa is called to take full advantage of the blue economy. Women must not be left behind. The blue economy in Africa will succeed with the youth and women, or it will not succeed at all.”
Among the 2026 Heroines were Dr. Karen Sumser-Lipson, Chairman and Commissioner, AMSSA, UK; Dr. Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood, AMSSA; Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie, Ghana’s Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts; Hon. Emelia Arthur, Ghana’s Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development; and Hon. Joyce Bawah Mogtari, Special Aide to President John Dramani Mahama. Nigeria’s Dr. Helen Inafa Bob of RMAFC and Princess Nere Emiko Tereba were also recognised.
The list included Engr. Prof. Ongoebi Maureen Orubide Etebu, Pioneer Vice-Chancellor of Nigerian Maritime University; Dr. Stephanie Waniko, National Oceanographic Institute, Nigeria; Dr. Chizoba Anyika, NIMASA; and Dr. Faith Izibenua Zibs-Godwin, Nigeria’s pioneer State Commissioner for Marine & Blue Economy. Captains Ndeye Aby Gueye of Senegal, Zanele Madiba and Makhosi Mbokazi of South Africa, and Lt. ANDRIANASOLO Vola Henintsoa of Madagascar’s Navy were also honoured, alongside CEOs, researchers, and community leaders from Tunisia, Tanzania, Liberia, Madagascar and Cameroon.
ABER said the 30 Heroines are rewriting Africa’s maritime story “from the shoreline to the boardroom, the laboratory to the bridge.” By celebrating women as Guardians of Food, Builders of Knowledge, Leaders Breaking the Tide, and Agents of Reconciliation, the organisation said it is anchoring the continent’s blue future in inclusion, expertise, and collective action.
