Buhari’s administration redirected focus to Agriculture – Lokpobiri

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri has said that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has redirected the focus of Nigeria towards the path of agriculture.

He also said efforts at harnessing the huge potentials in fisheries and aquaculture will no doubt give an added impetus to the realization of the country shared objective of wealth creation and food security.

Speaking through the Director Agribusiness and Marketing Department of the Ministry, Alhaji Muyiwa Abdulazeez at the 10th Annual Ministerial Conference of the Fisheries Committee of the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) at Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja on Tuesday, he said: “The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has successfully redirected the focus of Nigeria towards the path of sustainable development anchored on agriculture; efforts at harnessing the huge potentials in fisheries and aquaculture will no doubt give an added impetus to the realization of our shared objectives of wealth creation, food and nutritional security in the Gulf of Guinea”.

The Minister commends member states and Nigeria particularly for hosting this important meeting the second time since inception.

“It is my hope that you have exploited the conducive environment guaranteed by Nigeria as your host to have fruitful deliberations at the 10th Annual FCWC starting today which I understand Nigeria is hosting for the second time.

“The 10th anniversary of existence and excellent performance in Fisheries management, promotion of fish trade, fight against Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing and regional cooperation among member countries is worthy of commendation”, he said.

In his remarks, the Secretary General of the FCWC, Serephin Dedi indicated that investment first in fishery in West Africa will be the final option.

“We have indicated that we have to invest for growth accessibility in West Africa, We think that if enough investment is done by the public sector, private and all partners and stakeholders, the fishery sector will surely improve. The contributions in fisheries will only improve with much investment in food security, distribution and job creation. This sector is helping a lot in terms of distribution on the final mission of the sector. If you invest in fisheries you are sure of developing the people of the region”.

On challenges facing the sector in the region, he said: “There are some challenges that are bold in the sector which is capacity. The sector is specific; so, we need more modern technologies; more equipment is needed to have more stock to have enough capacity to train enough personnel for you to go through to have much stock chains. The other thing is the issue of more foreign investors coming into West Africa to fish and most of the time, the capability to monitor their activities. So, all the activities that could not be monitored are illegal. When they are illegal, you know they do not mind your economy and these are the challenges that we are getting in the sector.

“Other challenges like the statistics like what quantity each country has produced in the region, the quantity gone to the market in the region and the value addition of the activity also in the region; these are some kind of discretions we do not have. If we do we will be able to have more economical improvement that will improve our economy in the region.

“The accreditation level to know how many countries is involved in fishery in the region; is difficult for us to have now but we know that all the people of the region are fully and totally dependent on fish”.

Tom Okpe, Abuja