Fish farmers canvass for long-term agro financing

Fish farmers in the country are canvassing for long-term agro financing that is specifically design for the aquaculture sector in Nigeria.

The farmers who spoke to BusinessDay stated that the potential of the subsector is being limited by poor access to long term credit and high cost of fish feeds. They stated that inadequate finance is a major constraint that has hindered the growth of the sector.

“We need a finance that is specific for aquaculture with should be long term between 10 and 15 years at single digit of at most five percent,” said Tiamiyu Nurudeen, national vice president, Tilapia Aquaculture Developers Association of Nigeria

“Fish farmers do not need an umbrella financing system that we have currently.

“The government does not understand aquaculture. Anchor borrowers scheme cannot really fund aquaculture with the cap that cooperatives get. To feed 1000 piece of fish per day requires a minimum 506 to 600,000. Does anchor borrowers scheme provide that?” Nurudeen asked.

A total of 1.03 million metric tonnes of fish was produced in 2015 by the three subsectors, with artisanal having the highest with 694,867 metric tonnes, followed by aquaculture with 316,727 metric tonnes and industrial with 15,464 metric tonnes, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Nigeria’s total annual fish demand is estimated at 2.7 million metric tons (MT) which implies that the country’s has a demand-supply gap of over a million MT of fish, according to the agricultural roadmap.

This yawning gap is filled with fish imports of $625m, which erodes Nigeria’s chances of diversification.

Nigeria’s per capita fish consumption is 11kg, which is significantly lower than the global average of 21kg and just less than the estimate of 13.5kg for Côte d’Ivoire.
“Fish farmers need about 6month moratorium before we can find our footing. Most farmers cannot secure loans as they do not have the needed collateral,” Tayo Akingbolagun, national president, Catfish Farmers Association of Nigeria told BusinessDay in a telephone response to questions.
“The banks need to sit down and come up with a product that would suit the farmers in terms of credit,” said Akingbolagun said.
Apart from credit, high cost of fish feeds have been a major challenge also facing the industry.
Industry sources who spoke with BusinessDay blamed the failure of the country to tremendously increase its fish production in recent years on the high cost of quality fish feeds as a result of FX volatility which has constrained the importation of feeds and forced prices of fish to hit the roof tops, while also hurting the fish farming business.
“The cost of feeds is still very high and some fish farmers imports maize and soybeans which is a strain on the on the country’s foreign currency and this cut across the aquaculture to main stay livestock industry,” said Nurudeen who was earlier quoted.

“The competition is high for the few we produce. If we are unable to get to the point where we can produce enough maize and soybeans which are main components apart from fish meal which we imports then our fish cannot be sustainable and cheaper,” he said.

“Now the prices are high and the margins are smaller because we spen because we spend more on fish feeds and this is why smuggling will not stop because it is cheaper,” he added.

 

Josephine Okojie