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Nigeria spends N125bn on fish import annually – FG

By BusinessNews Staff on February 26, 2014

Nigeria spends an estimated N125.38bn every year importing fish, the Federal Government has said.

The government frowned at the development and stressed that about 1.9 million metric tons of fish were imported into Nigeria annually.

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 “totally unacceptable.”

He said, “Nigeria spends an estimated N125.38bn importing fish every year. This is totally unacceptable.”

According to Adesina, fishery is an important sector and contributes four per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

He explained that the total demand for fish in Nigeria was 2.7 million MT but Nigeria was producing about 800,000 MT locally, with the deficit of 1.9 million MT addressed by imports.

The minister therefore noted that for Nigeria to be self-sufficient in fish production, it should promote greater investments in aquaculture, improve 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 MT would be added to the current domestic production thereby bringing the whole to 67 per cent self-sufficiency.

He said the ministry’s Growth Enhancement Support 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 N1.5bn.”

Adesina further highlighted some illegalities in fish importation and production, stressing that continued corruption in fish importation had made 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.

The minister said, “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.”

Speaking on the ban on fish importation, Adesina said the government had not banned the import of fish.

He said, “It is important to make it clear that the government has not banned the import of fish, as is being misinterpreted by unscrupulous fish importers.

“The Federal Government had at no time placed a whole-scale 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.”

[Punch]

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