In aquaculture, progress is built pond by pond, farm by farm and increasingly, lesson by lesson.

As of December 2025, Samaki Poa’s free online training platform, HowtodoAquaculture.com, has surpassed 10,500 registered users, reaching learners, farmers, youth, and aquaculture professionals across 41 African countries. This is a milestone we are genuinely proud of, not just because of the growth, but because of what it represents: Real learning, applied knowledge, and practical impact at scale.

More than a number | What the milestone tells us

Reaching 10,500+ users is meaningful, but the real story sits behind the headline figures:

• 3,400+ certificates issued across multiple practical aquaculture courses.
• 63,900+ learning videos completed in 2025 alone, demonstrating strong engagement and steady progress.
• A growing catalogue of high-quality, practical courses, covering fish farming fundamentals as well as specialised topics such as feed, pond management, biosecurity, and business skills.

Together, these results point to a clear demand for training that is accessible, hands-on, and immediately applicable, from pond preparation to production planning.

The partnership powering the platform

This achievement is driven by the Samaki Poa partnership, an intercontinental consortium featuring four main partners: BluePlanet Academy, Skretting/Tunga Nutrition, Larive International, and Lattice Aquaculture. The initiative is backed by a €2 million investment from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) for its 2022–2026 programme.

Importantly, the partnership strategy goes beyond digital learning alone. It integrates the platform with essential on-the-ground support to ensure farmers can translate learning into practice.

From online learning to on-the-ground change

Samaki Poa combines digital education with practical delivery mechanisms that strengthen adoption and inclusion:

• Practical training

Samaki Poa collaborates with Aquaculture Academy sites in Kenya and other hubs such as Gishanda Fish Farm in Rwanda to deliver intensive, hands-on courses. The goal is to train at least 1,200 farmers, students, and fisheries officers with practical skills they can apply immediately.

• One-stop hubs

To help bridge the digital divide, five “one-stop” aquaculture hubs are being established in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. These centres are designed to provide:

• Access to quality feed and fingerlings.
• On-site training.
• Computer access to use the e-learning platform, particularly valuable for farmers without reliable internet.

This blended approach helps ensure that digital learning becomes a real-world improvement, not just completion statistics.

A platform at continental scale

With its growing reach and strong learner engagement, HowtodoAquaculture.com has established itself as the largest and most widely used digital learning platform for aquaculture in Africa. And the scale is in service of the impact: Improved farm performance, better decision-making, safer practices, stronger business skills, and a more professionalised sector.

Lasting impact for a growing sector

The 10,000-user milestone is also a clear indicator that the Samaki Poa partnership is on track to deliver its broader vision: Improving food security, boosting local fish production, and creating sustainable livelihoods. The programme aims to positively impact around 7,500 households and contribute to the creation of approximately 1,250 jobs within the aquaculture value chain.

For each of the partnership members, the growth of HowtodoAquaculture.com reinforces a shared commitment to enabling sustainable private-sector development in emerging markets by building skills, improving access, and strengthening value chains.

Thank you & onward!

To every learner who enrolled, completed modules, earned a certificate, or encouraged someone else to start: Thank you.

And to all partners, institutions, and ambassadors who supported content development, rollout, localisation, and visibility: Thank you. This milestone belongs to all of you.

And this is only the beginning.