The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, has intensified efforts to reposition\u00a0Nigeria as a fish-sufficient nation, securing a $200m commitment from the World Bank Group to support a renewed national drive to expand fisheries and aquaculture production across the country.\n<\/p>\n
The funding, which will be made available to state governments as concessional loans, is expected to strengthen their capacity to develop and expand fisheries and aquaculture activities, unlock investment opportunities, boost domestic fish production and ultimately bridge Nigeria\u2019s widening fish supply deficit.\n<\/p>\n
Oyetola\u2019s renewed push\u00a0also places greater emphasis on collaboration between federal and state\u00a0governments, investors and development partners to reduce the country\u2019s\u00a0dependence on imported fish and strengthen national food security.\n<\/p>\n
The Minister\u2019s position\u00a0was conveyed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Marine and\u00a0Blue Economy, Professor Busayo Fakinlede, who represented him at a high-level\u00a0Executive Training on Aquaculture Investment Guide organised by the Federal<\/p>\n
Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy in collaboration with the World Bank Group.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have secured a $200m\u00a0commitment from the World Bank Group to support a renewed national drive to\u00a0expand fisheries and aquaculture production across the country,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
The training, held in\u00a0Abuja, brought together key policymakers and technical officials, including\u00a0commissioners from Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and Cross River States, permanent\u00a0secretaries and directors of fisheries and aquaculture from across the<\/p>\n
federation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was designed to\u00a0equip state-level decision-makers with the expertise to translate investment\u00a0opportunities into bankable aquaculture projects, with emphasis on viable\u00a0business models, risk management, environmental and social safeguards, and\n<\/p>\n
public-private partnerships,\u201d Oyetola added.\n<\/p>\n
Speaking through his\u00a0representative, Oyetola said Nigeria\u2019s ambition to achieve fish sufficiency\u00a0could only become a reality through deliberate sub-national participation,\u00a0stressing that states must assume greater responsibility for expanding domestic\n<\/p>\n
production.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFish is a pillar\u00a0of food security, household nutrition and rural livelihoods. No nation can call\u00a0itself food secure while it imports most of the fish it eats. Our ambition is\u00a0to produce more, import less and, in time, become a net exporter. That ambition\n<\/p>\n
can be achieved only when every state plays its part,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nigeria requires\u00a0approximately 3.6 million tonnes of fish annually but currently produces about\u00a01.4 million tonnes, leaving a deficit exceeding 2.2 million tonnes. The\u00a0shortfall is largely bridged through imports, which cost the country close to $1bn\n<\/p>\n
annually in foreign exchange.\n<\/p>\n
He said that to reverse\u00a0the trend, the Ministry was pursuing a state-driven aquaculture development\u00a0framework under which each state would identify priority value chains, assess\u00a0investment readiness, develop bankable project pipelines and commit to\n<\/p>\n
measurable contributions towards national fish production.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe $200m World Bank\u00a0support is expected to provide critical financing for states to implement these\u00a0priorities, expand production capacity and accelerate the country\u2019s journey\u00a0towards fish sufficiency,\u201d Oyetola explained.\n<\/p>\n
He emphasised that the\u00a0federal-state interface was also expected to provide a coordinated platform for\u00a0an inclusive national fish security strategy, ensuring that the Federal\u00a0Government\u2019s ambition was translated into measurable production commitments and\n<\/p>\n
investment outcomes at the sub-national level.<\/p>\n
The Minister commended\u00a0the World Bank Group for its strategic partnership and sustained support for\u00a0Nigeria\u2019s marine and blue economy development, particularly its contributions\u00a0to analytical studies, cluster-based development, capacity building and the\n<\/p>\n
Aquaculture Investment Guide.\n<\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, has intensified efforts to reposition\u00a0Nigeria as a fish-sufficient nation, securing a $200m commitment from the World Bank Group to support a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}