High feed cost, poor financing threaten fish production — FG

By Folarin Kehinde

The Federal Government has identified high feed costs, inadequate access to quality fish seed and broodstock, poor financing and weak fish-health systems as major challenges limiting fish production in Nigeria.

Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja while inaugurating the Technical Committee on Accelerating Fish Production in Nigeria.

Oyetola said the challenges had widened the gap between domestic fish production and national demand, with implications for food security, household incomes and foreign exchange earnings.

He also identified post-harvest losses, inadequate cold-chain and storage infrastructure, gaps in research and innovation, weak data systems, inadequate standards and traceability, and poor market development as major constraints to the sector.

According to him, “Domestic production remains substantially below national demand, with consequences for food security, household incomes and foreign-exchange resources.”

The minister said the high cost of production, particularly fish feed, was undermining the ability of farmers to expand output, while limited access to quality seed and broodstock was restricting productivity.

He added that weak fish-health and biosecurity systems, coupled with inadequate cold-chain facilities, continued to expose the sector to production risks and post-harvest losses.

Oyetola further identified limited access to affordable financing as a major constraint, stressing that research and innovation gaps, poor data and inadequate market systems must also be addressed to unlock the sector’s potential.

He said the transfer of fisheries and aquaculture functions to the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy had provided a stronger institutional platform to address the challenges as part of Nigeria’s broader blue economy development agenda.

The minister said the government remained committed to increasing sustainable domestic fish production, strengthening the fisheries value chain and progressively reducing the country’s dependence on fish imports.

Oyetola said the newly inaugurated committee would review recommendations from a strategic roundtable on accelerating fish production organised by the ministry in collaboration with the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) on October 29, 2025.

He charged the committee to move beyond policy formulation and develop a practical roadmap for addressing the challenges confronting the sector.

“Your assignment is not to develop another policy or establish a parallel programme,” the minister told members of the committee.

He directed the committee to assess the roundtable recommendations against existing policies, laws, government programmes and institutional mandates, and determine which should be adopted, refined, integrated into existing frameworks or subjected to further study.

The committee is also expected to map existing government, private-sector and development-partner initiatives to prevent duplication and ensure efficient use of resources.

Oyetola said the final report must contain an implementation matrix outlining priority interventions, responsible institutions, timelines, indicative costs, funding options, performance indicators and required approvals.

The report is also expected to identify opportunities for private-sector investment, public-private partnerships and development financing.

The committee, chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mrs Fatima Sugra Mahmood, has eight weeks to submit its report.

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