Nigeria’s target of achieving self-sufficiency in fish production is being hampered by Federal Government’s policy lapses and high rate of smuggling, which is making the industry less attractive to investors.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) capital importation report show that foreign direct investment (FDI) in the subsector declined by 75 percent year on year, from $4 million in 2016 to $1 million in 2017.
“The 2016 FDI for the sector was high because a lot of importers began making huge investment in the sector owing to the backward integration policy of the Federal Government then but it declined in 2017 because the present administration is relaxed on the implementation of the policy,” Tiamiyu Nurudeen, vice president, Tilapia Aquaculture Developers Association of Nigeria (TADAN) told BusinessDay.
“The previous Jonathan administration banned the importation of Tilapia and Catfish into the country and placed a quota on importation with the promise that it will be reduced yearly; with this a lot of people started investing in the subsector but with the current high rate of importation and smuggling, which investor will want to invest in an industry you cannot get good prices for your products?” Nurudeen asked.
Nigeria’s total annual fish demand is put at 3.5 million metric tons (MT), while the country produces only 1.1 million MT, leaving a gap of 2.4 million MT annually, according to data from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
This yawning gap is filled with fish imports of N225bn (US$625m).
For the first time, the world is eating more fish from farms than from the open sea, spurring billions of dollars of investments as companies seek to capitalize on rising demand.
Nigeria’s per capita fish consumption is 11kg, which is significantly lower than the global average of 21kg and just less than the estimate of 13.5kg for Côte d’Ivoire.
In 2014, the Jonathan administration introduced the backward integration policy for importers of fish to start making investments in the sector before they can be issued permits to import.
Under the policy, an annual baseline fish import figure was set at 700,000 tons for 2014 which reduces the allowable quantity of imported fish to 500,000 tons for the year, with a promise of a further reduction annually.
“The backward integration policy has failed and has been exploited to the detriment of Nigerians. This has made the fishing subsector investment environment unpredictable making it unattractive to investors,” Oloye Rotimi Olibale, national president, Catfish and Allied Fish Farmers Association of Nigeria (CAFAN) said in a telephone interview.
“There is no proper monitoring by the government on the backward integration policy and the import quota. We are now having more imported frozen fish in the country than we had before and this has continued to make the industry less attractive for investments,” Olibale said.
The fishing subsector contracted marginally on a quarter on quarter basis from -2.72 percent in q2 to -2.84 percent in q3 2017 and a sharp contraction from -0.34 percent in q3 2016 on a year on year basis, according to data from NBS.
Responding to BusinessDay’s questions on the issue, Mohammed Muazu, director of fisheries, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) said the government increased the import quota to 800,000MT to satisfy the huge fish demand and supply gap in the country.
“We have been able to boost local production to 1.1 million tons but it still cannot satisfy the country’s needs and this is why we allowed importation. We had to increase the import quota to 800,000 metric tons for importers as fish remains the cheapest animal protein in the country,” Muazu said.
The issue is not the importation of fish but the high rate of smuggling of tilapia and catfish through the land borders into the country. This issue is beyond our control because it is the Nigerian Customs that has the mandate to stop smuggling.
“The ministry has setup a committee to look into the issue of smuggling through the land borders and the backward integration policy is still very effective,” the director added.
Nigeria’s aquaculture industry is largely untapped and beset with a combination of worsening piracy attacks, poor access to credit, lack of the requisite technical skills, unavailability of good quality and moderately priced fish feed, as well as lack of direct investment.
Nurudeen who was earlier quoted urged the government to provide conductive environment to attract investments and develop a specific funding model for the fish industry.
“The financing for aquaculture is different from financing of crop production. Aquaculture should have a specific funding system different from crop farming,” he said.
JOSEPHINE OKOJIE & BUNMI BAILEY
