Fish importation: Nigeria spends $1.2bn annually - Emefiele
- CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, said Nigeria spends about 1.2 billion dollars to import fish annually
- Emefiele added that current local fish production stood at 0.8 million tons while the demand was 2.7 million tons, giving a deficit of 1.9 million tons.
- The CBN boss said the bank is planning to work with coastal states to address the deficit of 1.9metric tons and put an end to the huge import bill for fish
Godwin Emefiele, the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says about 1.2 billion dollars worth of fish is imported into the country every year.
According to a report filed by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Emefiele said this while briefing some state governors and the media on the achievements made in the agriculture sector so far in Abuja on Thursday, September 19.
The CBN governor explained that current fish production stood at 0.8 million tons while the demand was 2.7 million tons, giving a deficit of 1.9 million tons.
He said the CBN's current initiative was to engage the governors in coastal states to develop the blue economy to address the deficit of 1.9metric tons and put an end to the huge import bill for fish.
Emefiele said the initiative will provide a very huge economic opportunity for the states to create an enabling environment for investors.
In a related development, the CBN governor said that major innovation to deepen the poultry business was the recent partnership between the bank and tertiary institutions to pilot the “The University-Based Poultry Production Programme” in twelve 12 Universities across the six geo-political zones.
He added that the objective is to not only build future agripreneurs but make the universities able to improve their internally generated revenue.
“For the pilot phase, five Nigerian Universities, namely; Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and University of Ilorin were enrolled.
“These universities have submitted a revised proposal to their respective sponsoring banks,” he said.
NAN reports that governors of Ekiti, Adamawa, Lagos, Ogun, Benue, Zamfara, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, Bauchi, Gombe, Katsina, Anambra, Imo, Edo, and Borno states attended the meeting.
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, threw his weight behind the federal government's closure of Nigeria's borders.
Sanusi said he supported the border closure because of the need for rice farmers in the country to be protected.
He said the growing smuggling of rice and other commodities had hampered the activities of local producers and rice farmers in Nigeria.
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Source: Legit.ng
