Farmed pangasius harvest. (Photo: Stock File)

Fish import quota to be stopped to boost aquaculture

NIGERIA
Thursday, August 17, 2017, 00:20 (GMT + 9)

The Federal Government of Nigeria has decided to stop issuing fish import quota after considering the venture was no longer sustainable.

The decision was expressed by Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, during a meeting with the Ijebu Development Initiative on Poverty Reduction (IDIPR) in Abuja, Premium Times reported.

The minister explained that the move would also help boost local production of fish and other aspects of agriculture in the country.

According to him, the current deficit in fish in the country is over two million tonnes so he urged citizens to invest to boost fish production and create jobs in the sector.

“We want everybody to set up their fish farms, employ our people and create jobs for our people. When we came last two years, Nigeria was producing about 700,000 tonnes of fish but this has increased to about 1.2 million tonnes which means that there has been an increment of 400,000 tonnes,” Minister Lokpobiri pointed out.

He added that this increase represents more than 50 per cent of what they were producing and announced that the government would soon complete and commission the fish feed mill located at Eriwe village farm in Ijebu community of Ogun.

Lokpobiri praised IDIPR for its contribution to the country's fish production and encouraged other states to imitate the initiative taken by Ijebu community.

For his part, Olanipekun Alausa, the Chairman, Board of Directors of the initiative, listed some challenges hindering the agricultural initiative to include inadequate access to loans and lack of modern agricultural tools for mechanised farming.

Therefore, Alausa, who said the initiative was currently supplying food items to nine local government areas in the state, appealed for more support from the Federal Government to enhance the initiative’s performance.

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