Members of the Fisheries Cooperative Federation of Nigeria Ltd (FCFNL) have expressed worry over multiple-taxation on fish commodity as well as its negative effects on the fisheries sub-sector. Speaking at its annual general meeting, FCFNL’s President, Anthony Ashagye, lamented that despite its vast fisheries and aquaculture resource-base, Nigeria remains the highest fish importer in Africa with an estimated 950 metric tonnes valued at over N100 billion annually.
He said the collapse of the industrial fishery sub-sector has resulted in loss of over 100,000 jobs and cost the country more than $50 million in foreign exchange derivable from export of high-value sea food. Ashagye said it won’t be a crime if government sets aside N1 billion as credit facility to fisheries and aquaculture cooperative organisations for the next five years and provide pond construction equipment, fishing trawlers, motorised fishing boats, outboard engines, fish feed milling machinery, cold rooms and improved fish broods and seed to the fish farmers.
The union lamented the effects of growing insecurity in forms of militancy, sea piracy, youth restiveness and unregulated fishing in maritime states, as well as the insurgency in the Lake Chad region on fishing activities.
“We discovered that those who are into fishing with government are not the ones practising it. The people who are carrying laptops, going to the ministry of agriculture, meeting government officials saying they are fishermen, they are not and that is why whatever programme government is doing in fishery is failing because the target group has not been carried along,” Ashagye said.
