The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele said on Thursday that Nigeria imports about 1.2 billion dollars worth of fish annually.
He noted that currently, Nigeria produces 0.8 million tons of fish while the demand stood at 2.7 million tons, leaving a deficit of 1.9 million tons.
Emefiele made the disclosure in Abuja while briefing some state Governors and journalists on the achievements made so far in agriculture for economic growth.
According to him, the apex bank’s current initiative was to enagage the coastal state governors to develop the blue economy to address the deficit of 1.9metric tons as well as eradicate the huge import bill for fish.
According to him, this is a very huge economic opportunity for the states to create an enabling environment for investors.
In a similar development, the CBN boss 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 with objective of not only building future agripreneurs but making 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 revised proposal to their respective sponsoring banks,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria, 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.
NAN
