Former President Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom has accused Finance Minister Moosa Zameer of using the planned takeover of Ensis’s Hulhumale’ fish cannery by the state-owned Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO) for personal profit.
Speaking at a rally of his political party, the People’s National Front (PNF), on Sunday night, Yameen claimed that Minister Zameer plans to resign and leave the country once profits from the deal are secured.
The Ensis cannery — a USD 25 million facility opened in 2009 — stopped operations in 2023, following MIFCO’s decision to increase fish purchase prices to MVR 25. The plant has remained idle for 18 months.
On Saturday, MIFCO confirmed that it had started discussions to buy the Ensis cannery.
Yameen questioned the decision, saying the property could not be sold for USD 10 million in the private sector, yet the government was now allegedly preparing to pay USD 35 million for it. He also pointed out that MIFCO itself is struggling financially and has large debts.
“Moosa Zameer is behind this. He used to be very close to Ensis, and is very close now also. We are now hearing from people very close to Moosa Zameer, including senior officials in finance. After the deal is completed, Moosa Zameer will leave for Dubai. He doesn’t want to be here anymore,” Yameen told supporters.
The former president claimed that Zameer had even discussed the matter with foreign ambassadors, and that his plan was to resign once the deal was done.
“Once the deal is done Zameer’s intention is to resign and walk away. He thinks the law won’t reach him after that,” Yameen alleged.
In a statement, MIFCO said Ensis’s difficulties were mainly due to long delays in repairing its fishing vessels and machinery. The company said that with government support, it is now making substantial investments — meaning large and important spending — to expand its own fish purchasing and storage capacity.
MIFCO added that it is studying the possibility of acquiring Ensis’s processing facilities and is holding talks about the matter.
The Ensis cannery had a daily processing capacity of 25 tonnes of fish and was built using funds from the German Development Bank. While fish processing at the facility is currently stopped, Ensis continues to export fish.
