By Awyetu Asabe Hope
The Federal Government has inaugurated a 17-member technical committee to tackle Nigeria’s fish production deficit, reduce dependence on imports and address challenges across the aquaculture value chain.
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, inaugurated the committee on Thursday in Abuja, charging members to turn recommendations from a 2025 strategic roundtable into concrete and measurable actions.
Oyetola identified high production costs, expensive feed, inadequate access to quality fish seed and broodstock, weak fish-health systems, post-harvest losses and insufficient cold-chain infrastructure as major challenges facing the sector.
He also cited limited access to affordable finance, research gaps, weak data systems and inadequate standards and market development.
The minister said the committee should develop an implementation roadmap outlining priority interventions, responsible institutions, timelines, costs, funding options and performance indicators, while identifying opportunities for private-sector investment and public-private partnerships.
“Your assignment is not to develop another policy or establish a parallel programme,” Oyetola told the committee.
He said members should assess recommendations from the October 29, 2025 roundtable against existing policies, laws and government programmes, and determine which proposals should be adopted, refined or discarded.
The Permanent Secretary of the ministry and Chairman of the committee, Fatima Mahmood, said members would work with government institutions, researchers, industry stakeholders and development partners to translate the recommendations into practical interventions.
A committee member and Professor of Fisheries at Lagos State University, Akintola Latunji, said the team would collaborate with stakeholders to accelerate fish production nationwide.
The committee is expected to submit its report within eight weeks.
The Federal Government had previously identified a gap of more than 2.2 million metric tonnes between Nigeria’s annual fish production and its estimated requirement of 3.6 million metric tonnes.
Oyetola had said domestic production met only about 38.9 per cent of the country’s annual fish requirement, leaving Nigeria heavily dependent on imports.
