Adesina
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has warned operators in the fisheries sub-sector that the days of the fishy business of stripping away the fishing terminal assets are now over. Dr. Adesina, who made this known in Abuja yesterday, disclosed that the federal government is actually losing billions of naira through the sharp practices of the fish importers.
According to the minister, allegations are rife of dubiousness among some importers who declare fish for imports, but are actually importing other things, including cars. Fishy business.” He emphasised that “fish importers are cheating and are not paying the amounts due to government for licenses,” asking that “there is no cold storage capacity in the country to keep 5.9 million MT of fish. So what is being imported and declared as fish?”
The manipulations of fish import figures by the importers is used to avoid paying penalties for importing fish without fishing licenses, the minister noted, making it clear that the government has not banned the import of fish. He argued that “there is no reason why the price of fish would increase in the market, except due to speculative purposes by fish importers to make supernormal profits and undermine the policy of government to make Nigeria self-sufficient in fish production.”
The Federal Government had at no time placed a whole-scale ban on the importation of frozen fish into the country. The only fish being strictly regulated, and put under prohibition from being imported without control, is farmed fish. Our policy on this is in line with similar best practices all over the world. No nation can allow the kind of unbridled sharp market practices where importers rip off the economy, rip of consumers and cry wolf. The fish importers are fishing in murky corrupt waters.
“Those importing fish have to invest in local fish farming and production. But some of the members of AFISUN continue with illegality of importing fish into the county without import licenses and obtaining fake Letters of Clearance and stamped acknowledgment letters to discharge fish indiscriminately. This is fraudulent,” observed the minister.
He said, in line with the powers conferred on him as the Minister by Section 15 of the Sea Fisheries Act, he has issued new regulations to clean up the abuse in using Nigeria as a dumping ground for unwholesome frozen fish, in addition to serious trade malpractices associated with frozen fish importation into the country. “We will also also clean up the incipient corrupt practices by several members of the Fish Farm Estate Association, established “to increase domestic fish production by 800,000 metric tons within four years, provide affordable farmed fish at affordable price to consumers and to assist and empower prospective and practicing fish farmers in Nigeria through Public Private Partnership arrangement.”
Dr. Adesina wondered that “while foreign trawlers operate in our deep sea waters, Nigeria does not have vessels to do the same.” He announced that the federal government has acquired a deep sea vessel, RV Bayagbona, for the Nigerian Institute of Marine and Oceanographic Research (NIOMR) – named after the first Director of NIOMR. “The vessel was procured for the exploitation of Lantern fish and Drift fish (Ariomma species – Ariomma bondi and Ariomma melanum), which will be used to make fish meal. This will significantly reduce the import of fish feed into the country and drive down the cost of fish feed used in aquaculture.”
“Our goal,” he said, “is to be self sufficient in fish production. We will achieve this by promoting greater investments in aquaculture, improving artisanal, inland and marine fisheries. Our four-year target is to increase the production of fish fingerlings by 1.25 billion per year, the production of fish feed by 400,000 metric tons per year; and increase table size fish production by an additional 250,000 metric tons per year. Nigeria spends an estimated N125.38 billion importing fish every year. This is totally unacceptable.”
Our Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) now includes subsidies for producers of fish. In 2013, a total of 3.6 million juveniles, 36,000 bags of 15 kg of feed and 200 water testing kits were provided to fishermen in ten states, at a total cost of N1.5 billion Naira.” Highlighting the enormous challenges faced by the fisheries sub-sector, the minister lamented that “there is too much fishy business in the fish sector.”
He lamented that “the Nigerian marine waters are plagued with almost daily attacks by armed robbers on our shrimp trawling vessels, leading to killings and maiming of crew members, abduction of key officers and demand for huge ransom for their release, seizure of vessels for days leading to loss of fishing days, and the removal of fishing/communication equipment and catches. These attacks have become an embarrassment to security agencies; and if unchecked, it may lead to the complete collapse of the fishing industry.”
He announced a total of 271 reported cases of attacks on vessels operating in the Nigerian Territorial Waters occurred between February 2009 and September, 2013, describing the socio-economic impact as huge, “as it has led to a drastic reduction in the number of fishing fleet from about 230 vessels to only 119 vessels, with only ten companies in operation in recent years.” The minister expressed the determination “to curb the incidences of piracy and armed robbery through the provision of the necessary platforms,” saying that the ministry has “ordered for six passenger/patrol boats to improve surveillance.”
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