Nigeria’s aquaculture farmers are struggling for a larger share of the country’s fish market as import demand rises 21 percent to N521.4 billion in 2025.
The rapid growth in imports is exposing structural gaps in Nigeria’s aquaculture sector, which has long sought to meet the country’s increasing demand for fish. The trend is a blow to local farmers who have invested heavily in expanding operations.
“It is tough to compete with cheaper imports,” said Tiamiyu Nurudeen, national vice president of Tilapia Aquaculture Developers Association of Nigeria (TADAN).
“We are struggling to get more market share because we cannot compete,” Nurudeen said. “We need support to improve efficiency and reduce production costs,” he added.
The federal government has signalled interest in boosting local fish production, but farmers say more concrete action is needed.
Olatoye Fajimi, president of the Lagos State Catfish and Allied Farmers Association (LASCAFAN), said that both domestically and internationally, the market is contracting for Nigeria’s fish products.
He noted that fish farmers are currently battling rising energy costs, low consumer patronage, and shrinking market size.
Fajimi added that the cost of production for farmers has stabilised since the beginning of the year; however, he noted that the current Iran war is driving up operating expenses again as farms rely on fuel and diesel to power operations.
These issues, according to him, are eroding the opportunities and progress the industry has made since 2011, when output increased from less than 500,000 MT(metric tons) in 2011 to 1.1 million MT in 2017, data from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture showed.
The most recent data from the World Bank on the country’s fish production showed that the 2017 figure had declined marginally to a million MT in 2022.
While exact figures are difficult to track, the Federal Ministry of Blue Economy estimates suggest that the country needs 3.6 million tons annually to meet demand. This means that the country needs 2.6 million annually to bridge its supply and demand gap.
Rising consumption
Fish is in high demand in Africa’s most populous country, mostly due to its health benefits. It is healthier than meat and contains high omega-3 fatty acids, which lower inflammation and the risk of chronic diseases.
With fish consumption rising in Nigeria, the stakes are high. Local producers want a bigger slice of the market — and are urging policymakers to act.
“If we don’t get help, imports will continue to dominate,” Femi Odumosu, a fish farmer in Ibafo, warned. The outcome could shape the future of Nigeria’s fish farming sector.
Despite having the potential to generate annual revenue of $296 billion, as projected by the World Aquaculture Society, create millions of jobs, and reduce pressure on the naira, the country’s fishing and seafood industry is still largely untapped.
“Improving Nigeria’s fishing industry must begin by declaring a state of emergency in that sector,” said Cheta Nwanze, partner at SBM Intelligence. “Steps must be taken to also address piracy at sea.”
According to Nwanze, the sector is being hampered by a myriad of challenges ranging from infrastructural gaps to lack of exposure of fish farmers to modern aquaculture practices, to poor access to quality feed, and climate change effects such as flooding, among others.
“These have consequently made fish production levels in the country unable to meet growing local demand, and the sector unattractive.” Experts say the government must urgently address these issues to drive competitiveness.
Bridging the gaps
Nigeria’s aquaculture industry is largely untapped and beset by a combination of worsening piracy attacks, limited access to credit, a lack of requisite technical skills, the unavailability of moderately priced feed, and a lack of direct investment.
However, experts noted that the country has begun building the blocks for the industry, but that there is still a great deal of practical work to be done, including addressing issues of high feed costs and smuggling, power and logistics infrastructure development, and rampant illegal fishing to fully unlock the industry’s potential and drive competitiveness.
“We must address the issue of rising feed costs for us to be competitive,” said Fajimi. “We must also encourage local consumption of our fish products as there is a high preference for foreign fish products,” he added.
Export ban persists
Since 2018, the United States has banned the export of all fish products from Nigeria due to the country’s failure to fully supply information requested in the Self-Reporting Tool (SRT) before the due date.
“The U.S. ban is still there,” said Fajimi, noting that the Catfish and Allied Farmers Association is working closely with the Department of the Federal Ministry of Fishery to resolve the issue and ensure the ban is lifted this year.
Experts say the ban has shrunk the market for local farmers and hampered investments into the industry. The sector attracted $5 million in investment in 2025 after failing to record any in 2023 and 2024, according to data from the Capital Importation report.
The fish sector grew by 1.39 percent in 2025 after recording a contraction of 0.53 percent in 2024, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
