Stories by Steve Agbota
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Nigeria’s inability to attain self-sufficiency in food production after 56 years of independence is worrisome and also a national disgrace for its over 170 million population.
Across the globe, Nigeria is known as net importer of virtually everything. Because the country is heavily dependent on importation, importers make a fortune bringing in all sorts of unwholesome foods into the country without considering the health implications.
One of the unhealthy foods often imported into the country is fish, whose production in the country has been declining over the years. Factors responsible for the decline include inconsistency in Federal Government policies on fishing, the high cost of automotive gas oil, piracy, insecurity and sea armed robbery, which have combined to frustrate commercial fishing in the country.
Daily Sun learnt that government policies have led to 34 fishing companies operating in the country 10 years ago being reduced to only about 10 in 2016.
Nigeria’s current demand for fish stands at about 3.2 million metric tonnes per annum, while it produces a total of 1.1 million metric tonnes annually leaving a huge gap of 2 million tonnes in the supply of fish and fish products. This explains why Nigeria relies heavily on fish importation to bridge the wide gap.
However, stakeholders said that the Nigerian domestic fish market, estimated at $1.75 billion annually, is also suffering from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, losing $1.3 billion annually, along the coastal waters from Nigeria to Mauritania.
Nigeria’s per capita fish consumption of 11kg is generally considered low, as against a global average of 21kg, yet there is not enough supply to meet national demand, making importers to bring in all manner of unwholesome fish that could cause cancer, kidney problems and other diseases.
Only recently, the Federal Government raised the alarm that smugglers were beginning to flood the markets with harmful frozen fish illegally brought into the country through land borders.
The smugglers bring in all sorts of frozen fish such as tilapia, red pacus, river bream, pangassius, horse mackerel, sardine, and croaker through the country’s land borders.
But government has also vowed to clamp down on the perpetrators and declared that anyone found importing frozen fish without licence from the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development risks a five-year jail term or a fine of $250,000 or both.
This was as the Apapa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) intercepted a 40ft container of frozen tilapia fish imported from Turkey and valued at N22.1 million.
The Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Muhammad Jibrin, while leading newsmen to APM Terminals, Apapa, where the container was intercepted, said that the container No: DFOU6122880, was discovered during scanning.
He said, “the importer made a false declaration that the container was laden with apples. Upon scanning, officers discovered the container was containing 2,700 cartons of frozen tilapia fish from Turkey. The aforementioned fish species is under restriction.”
In the face of these unwholesome practices, stakeholders say that the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Directors at the Federal Fisheries Department, NAFDAC, SON and other agencies must embark on regular checks of all the coldrooms in the country, as most of them store rotten and unhealthy fishes.
Speaking with Daily Sun, President of Fishing Trawlers Owners Association of Nigeria (FTOAN), Mr. Akinsola Amire, said Nigeria has enough potential to produce more than 3 million metric tonnes of fish annually, adding that it is possible to attain self-sufficiency in fish if government works in the right direction.
He explained: “About five, 10 years ago, a lot of fishing companies folded up. At that time, we used to have about 350 vessels but today, we have about 150; in fact, it reduced to about 120 due to the insecurity in the maritime environment. It’s just that some companies are now starting to reveal their confidence and so, from 120, we now have about 150.
“On insecurity of tenure, FTOAN is trying to resolve issues with NPA over the concession of Kirikiri Lighter Terminal. Now we do hope that within the next one or two years this issue will be solved and those that are into industrial fishing can have long lease so that they will be free without any encumbrance to bring in many more vessels. If we bring in many more vessels, definitely the local production of fish from the maritime sector is going to increase.”
Speaking on productivity of the water, he explained that Nigeria has territorial water, which is mostly on the continental shelf, that is the inshore water, and the offshore. He said the offshore waters in Nigeria have, unfortunately, not been exploited because the type of vessel that will be required to go into the offshore waters is not exactly type of vessel operating now in Nigeria, and the type of fish there too is different.
He added: “For example, Nigeria has tuna resources and is a member of International Commission for Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) but we don’t have a tuna vessel in Nigeria even when we have tuna resources. So there is need to put in place structures that will be able to accommodate investors within this area; that is as far as industrial fishery is concerned.
“On aquaculture, what we do in the maritime environment is capture fishes. We don’t grow the fish there; we just go there and start harvesting. In the culture, Nigeria has enough potential to produce more than 3 million metric tonnes of fish annually.”
He said that government needs to build strategic cold stores so that it can buy off from fish farmers by organising fish farmers into cooperatives, just like strategic silos built for mopping up grains across the country.
He noted that, “it is possible that these cooperatives for fish farmers can go into fish processing, packaging and storage. We import a lot of catfish but what will prevent us from mopping up the excess catfish because if you are sure you are going to sell what you produce, a lot of people will go into it. But when you are not sure, then you rather prefer leaving it alone. That area of assurance of market, government really has to go into; if they do that, then we would be able to produce more fish because even the fish that is imported into Nigeria, do you know how many years ago they caught them?”
He said there is need for research institutes to do their work by developing good breed of tilapia fish because it is easier to grow than catfish. He added that if the research institutes give farmers the good breed of tilapia for culture, then government will encourage culturing of tilapia as well as catfish unlike now that every fish farmer is culturing catfish, which is not right.