The country spends about N125.38bn every year on the importation of 1.9 million metric tonnes on fish, the Federal Government has said.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ interactive session on repositioning the fishery industry in Abuja, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said the situation was unacceptable.
“Nigeria spends an estimated N125.38bn importing fish every year. This is totally unacceptable,” he said.
According to him, the fishery subsector is important and contributes four per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
Adesina explained that the total demand for fish in the country was 2.7 million metric tonnes, but it was producing about 800,000 metric tonnes locally with the deficit of 1.9 million metric tonnes being imported.
The minister said for Nigeria to be self-sufficient in fish production, it must promote greater investments in aquaculture and improve artisanal, inland and marine fisheries.
Adesina observed that with the transformation going on in the fish sub-sector, it was expected that within four years, one million metric tonnes would be added to the current domestic production, thereby bringing it to 67 per cent self-sufficiency.
He said the ministry’s Growth Enhancement Support Scheme now included subsidies for producers of fish.
“In 2013, a total of 3.6 million juveniles, 36,000 bags of 15kg of feed and 200 water testing kits were provided to fishermen in 10 states at a total cost of N1.5bn,” the minister said.
Adesina further highlighted some illegalities in fish importation and production, stressing that continued corruption in fish importation had made Nigeria a dumping ground for the product.
He said fish importers had corrupted public officials to give licences way above their available cold room warehouse capacities.
The minister added, “Fish importers are cheating and are not paying the amounts due to the government for licence. Even more worrisome is that there is no cold storage capacity in the country to keep 5.9 million metric tonnes of fish.
“So, what is being imported and declared as fish? Allegations are rife of dubiousness among importers, who declare fish for imports, but are actually importing other things, including cars.”
Adesina, however, said the government had not banned the importation of fish.
He said, “It is important to make it clear that the government has not banned the importation of fish as is being misinterpreted by unscrupulous fish importers.
“The Federal Government had at no time placed a wholesale ban on the importation of frozen fish into the country. The only fish being strictly regulated and put under prohibition from being imported without control is farmed fish.”
