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Nigeria takes steps to boost fisheries, aquaculture

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Benin, Nov. 10, 2023: The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security on Thursday expressed its willingness to reposition the fisheries and aquaculture sub-sector with a view to bridging the gap between production and demand.

It is also to increase the nation’s food and nutrition security.

Speaking at the 44th national Fisheries Development Committee (NFDC) meeting in Benin, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr Ernest Umakhihe, said that the meeting was to strategize on the Presidential Priorities and Ministerial Deliverables for the 2023-2027 period.

Umakhihe noted that the importance of fisheries and aquaculture to contribute to food and nutrition security, poverty eradication, wealth generation and employment, could not be overemphasized.

The permanent secretary’s keynote address was delivered by Mr. Wellington Omoragbon, Director, Federal Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

He urged the NFDC and all fisheries stakeholders present at the meeting to know that their efforts in developing memorandums would play a strategic role in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in boosting the nation’s food and nutrition security.

“It is significant to note that the federal government through the Ministry has introduced some measures in the past year, allowing the Fisheries sector to gain desired prominence.

“At this session, all issues peculiar to fisheries development such as capacity building, fish feed production, mariculture and cage culture, certification amongst others will be discussed.

“I expect you to discuss the memoranda presented at this meeting with full professionalism so as to come up with practical solutions to the problems we wish to solve in the fisheries sector.

Also speaking at the occasion, Edo State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food security, Mr. Stephen Idehenre, said that fish farmers had benefited a lot from so many Fisheries projects as a result of the state governor’s agricultural policy over the past seven years .

Idehenre noted that Gov. Godwin Obaseki had also given approval for a land for the state Fisheries department along Ogba River basin to be acquired for a new phase of fisheries cluster activities.

“With the approval of Mr. Governor, the state Fisheries department has also been given the green light to commence the training of fish farmers on value addition to mitigate risk associated with post-harvest losses in fish farms,” he said.

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FAO, ECOWAS, EU move to strengthen science-based fisheries

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The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has convened more than 100 experts to discuss and draw a road map for the utilization of the results in the view of adopting a sustainable management of the fisheries resources of the ECOWAS maritime domain.

The meeting tagged ‘Improved Regional Fisheries Governance in Western Africa (PESCAO)’ is funded by the European Union (EU), while FAO provides technical support on Monday in Abuja.

Urszula Solkiewicz, Program Officer Regional Co-operation Section, European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS said the meeting was to unveiled results delivered by the European and African research institutes to ‘Improved Regional Fisheries Governance in Western Africa’, known as the PESCAO Programme.

She said the EU has been supporting the Economic Community of West African States to deliver on its commitment to ensure integration of fisheries and aquaculture into the regional agriculture development agenda through the PESCAO programme.

” The program developed and implemented in close partnership with ECOWAS, the PESCAO programme has been effective in laying the foundations for supporting the a Western Africa Fisheries and Aquaculture Regional Policy, which now serves as a Roadmap to the community.

She said that livelihoods and incomes depends on how one is able to manage this complex and confusing environment, it is also important that those managering it have adequate knowledge of the ecosystems and the fishery to allow them to respond in management actions.

According to her, the three day Regional Meeting will enable the policy makers to meet the scientists in order to discuss what has been delivered and how those results should be later utilised at the national and regional level.

The FAO Representative in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Fred Kafeero, represented by the Head of FAO Nigeria, Northeast Office, Mr Al Hassan Cisse said the workshop is aimed at sharing the outcomes of Component 3 and ensuring deserved level of visibility of the PESCAO program.

He said the role and importance  ECOWAS attaches to fisheries development, fisheries management and the promotion of regional cooperation demonstrates how countries must take a leading role and set narratives in sustainable fisheries governance in West Africa and beyond.

He commended EU and the European Commission for the support in promoting sustainable fisheries development in West Africa and their commitment to the region’s fishery capacity development and fishing communities.

“Since 2018, the three complementary components of PESCAO Programme

have offered benefits to the region with enhanced contributions of fisheries resources to sustainable development, food security, and poverty alleviation across West Africa which  include:

“The Demersal Ecosystem project (DEMERSTEM), through the Institute Agro is a collaboration between ten research institutions that aims to support and improve the production of scientific advice on the status of important demersal species stocks.

“The Fisheries Management and Resilience of Small Pelagics in West Africa project (GREPPAO), under the University of Portsmouth focuses on economic and social issues associated with critical small pelagic fisheries and communities in West Africa.

“The Fishery Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic, CECAF-PESCAO project, under FAO framework supports West African countries in improving fisheries management advice, knowledge exchange and advancing knowledge on the small-scale fisheries sector”, he said.

He however, reaffirmed FAO’s commitment, and that of its partners of L’Institute Agro and the University of Plymouth to continue technical support towards sustainable fisheries in the region throughout the 4 years of the project.

Amadou Tall, PESCAO Programme Team Leader said that “by leveraging the expertise of the various institutions would set the narrative for fisheries governance and ensure that vital resources are managed sustainably across the ECOWAS maritime domain and beyond”.

The evidence-based approaches prompted by PESCAO Component 3 and the outcomes of the Abuja regional meeting have taken into account the latest scientific knowledge crucial to achieving sustainable fisheries across West Africa.

The experts are representatives of the Directors of Fisheries and aquaculture, research institute, development partners, non-state actors, European Union, African Union, USAID, and FAO.

FAO, Institut Agro, and the University of Portsmouth respectively are leading the projects that make up Component 3 of PESCAO.

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Nigeria expects equitable outcomes on WTO’s fisheries negotiations

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The government of Nigeria says it will continue to engage in fisheries subsidies negotiations, in order to achieve balanced and equitable outcomes from the forthcoming WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference (MC-12) on fisheries subsidies.

Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, said this at a virtual meeting of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Ministers of Trade on Fisheries Subsidies Negotiations.

The 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) will be convened by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, 2021, in Geneva, Switzerland.

The WTO’s Ministerial Conference, which is held every two years, is the highest decision-making body of the WTO and attended by trade ministers and other senior officials from the organisation’s 164 members.

The minister noted that the sustainable development of the fisheries sector was central to Nigeria’s quest for economic diversification and sustained growth.

According to the minister, it is of critical fundamental importance that the outcomes of the MC-12 are consistent with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.6 and our mandate.

SDG 14.6 targets to prohibit certain forms of fisheries’ subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, as well as eliminate subsidies which contribute to Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

He said that given that sustainable development of the sector was a viable route to Nigeria’s socioeconomic development, it expected MC-12 outcomes on fisheries subsidies to result in substantial reduction of overfishing and unsustainable fishing practices.

Adebayo thanked Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the Chair of the Fisheries Subsidies Negotiations, Amb. Santiago Wills of Colombia, for their efforts at advancing the negotiations.

He recalled that the contribution of the fisheries sector to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 0.84 per cent and 1.09 per cent in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

“Nigeria, which produces less than a million-metric tonne of fish annually is a net importer of fish. Marine catches contribute about 38 per cent of our annual output. The rest is made up of inland waters catches and aquaculture.

“Over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s total domestic production is generated by artisanal small-scale fishermen that support the livelihoods of over 24 million Nigerians. 73 per cent of those involved in fisheries in Nigeria are women,” he noted.

He explained that the country, with a continental coastline of 853km and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) area of 179,839 sq. kms, contained diverse species of fish, contributing to food and livelihood security of Nigerians.

However, he noted that illegal fishing, overfishing and other unsustainable fishing related activities, incentivised by heavy subsidies posed a major threat to sustainable development of Nigeria’s fisheries sector.

He advised that the outcomes should also reflect the “mutual supportiveness of trade and environment” by addressing simultaneously the three pillars of sustainable development as envisaged in the Hong Kong and Doha Ministerial Declarations.

Adebayo further noted that such outcomes should contain effective Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) that allow for sustainable development of the fisheries sector of developing countries.

The minister described S&DT as an integral part of the sustainability agenda of the WTO, adding that it was also crucial to achieving an acceptable balance of rights and obligations among WTO members.

“I am of the view that these S&DT provisions would not only undermine our rights to sustainable exploitation of marine resources in our EEZ, guaranteed by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, but would also undermine efforts to address our food and livelihood security difficulties.

“Nigeria expects carve-out for developing countries under all pillars in respect of fishing and fishing related activities of low income, resource-poor fishermen within their EEZ, with no preconditions.

“As well as exemptions of developing countries, with less than two per cent share of annual global marine capture, from some obligations of the disciplines,” he said.