Nigeria's foreign currency is being depleted by 2.4 million metric tons of fish imports –FG About 2.4 million metric tons of frozen fis...
Nigeria's foreign currency is being depleted by 2.4 million metric tons of fish imports –FG
About 2.4 million metric tons of frozen fish are brought into Nigeria every year, and the Federal Government said on Monday that this is hurting the country's foreign exchange savings.
Mohammed Mahmood, Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, told reporters at the Internal Coordination Meeting of Implementation of Fisheries Governance Project Phase Two in Abuja that Nigeria needed 3.6 million metric tons of fish every year, but only 1.2 million metric tons were made in the country.
Ime Umoh, Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, spoke on behalf of Mahmood and said, "Nigeria is a very large country, and we need about 3.6MMT per year, but we can only produce 1.2MMT through artisanal, industrial, and aquaculture fishing." Ime Umoh is the Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Importing frozen fish is what is done to make up for the shortage so that the gap can be closed. Even while we won't actually get 2.5 million metric tons of fish coming into the country, we do import frozen fish in order to make up for what we don't have.
When asked how much it cost to bring more than 2 million metric tons of fish into Nigeria, he said, "I won't be able to say, but I do know that it hurts our foreign exchange."
"However, the Central Bank of Nigeria is in charge of it because only the CBN governor can give Form-M to anyone who wants to bring frozen fish into the country. So, the CBN will have to pay for the foreign exchange that was used to bring in frozen fish.
"Before it comes into the country, we have to make sure we know where it's from, how healthy it is, how it's being stored, and other things," he said.
Mahmood also said, "We check the cold rooms, and we have inspectors in Lagos, Abuja, and other places who check the fish to make sure it arrives in great shape."
He also said that the Federal Government helped the local fish industry in many different ways.
He said, "We train people in the artisanal sector and give them inputs. Sometimes we put fingerlings in our rivers to make them stronger." When it comes to aquaculture, we set up fish farms for young people and women. We also give them food to eat.
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