Experts in the aquaculture have said that enormous investment opportunities abounds in the country’s aquaculture industry that are yet untapped.
The experts say that investment in the country’s aquaculture industry is important in changing the fortunes of the economy with attendant exponential gains by way of earnings, employment generation, food provision and other spin offs.
The experts spoke at a conference organised by Business Innovation Facility (BIF) in partnership with the UKaid to chat away forward for Nigeria’s aquaculture industry.
“The investment opportunities in Nigeria’s aquaculture industry are enormous and yet to be untapped. The industry is huge and can create lots of other subsectors with adequate investments,” Haruna Waziri Muhammed-Zukrana, co-founder of Largo Farms said.
“There are opportunities in fish feeds and vaccines as we currently import them, thus making cost of production high,” he said.
Muhammed-Zukrana who is also the general secretary of Fresh Fish Sellers Association of Nigeria, Abuja Chapter said that numbers of fish farmers in the country have grown from 49,000 in 2015 to about 7 million in 2017, noting that the industry is attracting new farmers owing to huge potential.
He called for investments in quality feeds to drive down farmers production cost, saying that feeds cost accounts for 78percent of total cost.
He urged farmers to adopt hydroponics and aquaponics technology to boost productivity.
Speaking also, Sejiro Michael Oke-Tojinu, vice president, Lagos State Catfish Farmers Association (LASCAFAN) said that the demand of Nigerian processed cat fish is on the increase in the West African region, Europe and America.
“The demand for process catfish is on the increase and glut is no longer a challenge to us again. Ghana is requesting 120 tons of processed catfish from us monthly,” Oke-Tojinu who is also the director and CEO of SejiFarms Ventures/Farmers Solution Consult said.
“There are huge opportunities in hatchery, production of smoking kiln, nutrition and other value change. Investors can invest in any of these. The demand for fingerlings from hatchery is on the rise daily,” he said.
He highlighted limited research, extension and inadequate access to finance as factors limiting the industry from growth and expansion.
He urged the government to resolve the banning issue of the country’s catfish from US and Europe to allow access to other markets.
Speaking about the BIF Programme in the country, Soji Apampa, country director, said that the initiative which is in its fourth years of operation is focus on the development of dairy, maize, cassava and aquaculture production in Nigeria.
“The target was to reach 160,000 beneficiaries over five years; we have reached 480,000 in four years. We were supposed to raise their income sustainably by an aggregate of £16million over five years; we are in year four and have clocked £25million,” Apampa who is also the cofounder of Business Integrity which runs the initiative said.
“In terms of the target we have reached the target and we have set new ones. We are Nigerians and we have ruined the program based on foreign aid but believe we can push the envelope more and spur greater development so we are look for national scale change not just change through our program,” he adds.
Josephine Okojie
