The minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has said that Nigeria spends an estimated N125.38 billion on fish importation annually.
Dr. Adesina who made this known yesterday at a stakeholders interactive session on repositioning the fishery sector in Abuja, said that the situation was totally unacceptable.
His words ” Nigeria spends an estimated N125.38 billion importing fish every year. This is totally unacceptable “.
The Minister described fishery as an important sector, adding that it contributes four per cent to the GDP.
He further explained that total demand for fish in Nigeria is 2.7 million MT but Nigeria is producing about 800,000 MT locally with the deficit of 1.9 million MT which is met by imports.
Dr.Adesina therefore said that for Nigeria to be self-sufficient in fish production, it would promote greater investments in aquaculture, improve artisanal, inland and marine fisheries.
He also said that with the transformation going on in the fish sub sector, it is expected that within four years, 1 million MT would be added to the current domestic production thereby bringing the whole to 67 per cent self-sufficiency.
Dr. Adesina revealed that the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) Scheme now includes subsidies for producers of fish.
He said “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 N1.5 billion .
Dr. Adesina further highlighted some illegalities in fish importation and production, stressing that continued corruption in fish importation had left Nigeria a dumping ground for fish.
He said that fish importers had corrupted public officials to give licences away above their available cold room warehouse capacities.
“Fish importers are cheating and are not paying the amounts due to government for licence. Even more worrisome is that there is no cold storage capacity in the country to keep 5.9 MT 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”, the minister said.
