Adegboyega Oyetola, Nigeria’s minister of Marine and Blue Economy, has urged investors and lenders to put money into catfish production, saying the country’s fish deficit is now a commercial opportunity.
Oyetola spoke on Wednesday in Abuja at a roundtable on scaling up the catfish value chain, organised under the FISH4ACP programme.
Nigeria needs about 3.6 million metric tonnes of fish a year, he said. Domestic production from all sources is about 1.4 million tonnes. The gap of roughly 2.2 million tonnes is filled largely by imports.
“Expanding domestic fish production is an economic and food security imperative,” Oyetola said. “It offers an opportunity to strengthen domestic food supply, reduce dependence on fish imports, stimulate enterprise development and create sustainable livelihoods.”
Nigeria is Africa’s second-largest aquaculture producer and a leading producer of farmed African catfish, he said. The opportunity, he added, goes beyond ponds.
He listed hatcheries, feed mills, equipment manufacturing, transport, processing, cold-chain services and trading as areas where investors can make returns. “Investment in aquaculture has a multiplier effect, creating opportunities and value across several interconnected sectors,” he said.
Oyetola said closing the gap will require more than building new farms. The value chain needs coordinated investment in quality fingerlings, affordable feed, financing, fish health management, markets and infrastructure.
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He pointed to FISH4ACP, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation with funding from the European Union and the German government, as an example of what targeted support can do.
The programme has worked on alternative feed ingredients, including black soldier fly larvae, hatchery management, broodstock improvement, business development and digital farm management.
On finance, Oyetola told lenders to design credit that fits fish farming. “The timing of disbursement, repayment schedules and cost of credit must reflect the production cycle and cash-flow patterns of fish farming enterprises,” he said. Viable businesses, he said, should not be held back by financing that does not fit the sector.
He named high feed and energy costs, inconsistent supply of quality fingerlings, weak fish health management and biosecurity, and limited processing and cold-storage facilities as the main constraints.
Those constraints, he said, are themselves investment openings — in feed manufacturing, modern hatcheries, processing plants, cold-chain infrastructure and logistics.
Oyetola said the federal government will work with state governments, regulators and private operators to improve the operating environment.
He also pledged closer engagement with development finance institutions on affordable financing, better data, research, quality assurance and technical support.
He called for aquaculture clusters and cooperatives to cut costs, share infrastructure and improve access to services. He also called for the inclusion of women, young people and small and medium-scale enterprises in the expansion.
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Josephine Okojie-Okeiyi is a journalist with over five years’ reporting experience. She writes on industry, agriculture, commodities, climate change, and environmental issues.
She is fellow of Thomson Reuters Foundation and Bloomberg Media Initiative for Africa.
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