Nigeria still below global standard on fish consumption –Obasanjo

From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed Nigeria is still far behind in meeting the set standards of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in fish consumption.

The former president made the disclosure at the commissioning of Obasanjo Aquaculture Centre in Abeokuta.

Obasanjo, who spoke through his consultant and founder of Aquatic Hub Afrique Network, Steve Okeleji, said his centre has the capacity to produce about 3.5 million pieces of fish annually.

“Baba has given the task to solve the problem of food insecurity in Nigeria, especially in the area of aquaculture where we know we are not doing very well with the quantity of fish been assumed to be consumed by Nigerians.

“The FAO standard is about 21kg and we are doing about 11kg per head in Nigeria which is way way below what is expected for us to consume,” Okeleji said.

“The idea for us is to be able to have a complete engagement of the aquaculture value chain and Baba invited me over to set up a real aquaculture project that has a component of the entire value chain of aquaculture and that is what we have been able to do here.

“We have been able to have a capacity of about 3.5 million piece of fish in a year with all our facilities from the hatchery to the earthen pond from the earthen pond to the cages and the cages are precision fish farming.”