The value of private sector investments in the fishing industry has hit a staggering N150 billion.
This was made known by the director of fishery department at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Olabisi Bamidele Adepegba, while speaking at a maritime industry stakeholders’ conference in Lagos.
Adepegba, who represented the minister of agriculture, Audu Ogbe, at the conference chaired by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, said the investors, however, faced severe security issues as the Nigeria Navy gives more attention to oil and gas installations in the waters and oil and gas companies, leaving the fishing trawlers to frequent attacks by sea criminals.
She also complained that the fishing vessels have become a new source of revenue, howbeit illegal, to the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), noting that whereas only the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has regulatory powers over the fishing vessels, NIWA was forcefully making the trawler owners pay money to it to operate in the waters.
She stressed that implementation of the Cabotage Act would help operators in the fishing industry.
“The fishing industry is not protected by the Navy. Navy gives concentration on oil and gas companies,” she said.
