Nigeria imports 900,000 metric tonness of fish out of the 1.5 million metric tonnes consumed annually, a top government official said at the weekend
Director of Water Supply and Public Private Partnership in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mr. Benson Ajisegiri, who stated this, added that in spite of the huge availability of water in the country, Nigeria is rated as one of the poorest countries in terms of water supply as a result of lack of investment and proper management.
He explained that the 264 dams in the country were grossly under utilised and poorly managed.
The Director who spoke at the annual conference of the Nigeria Committee on Large Dams said many of the dams were constructed as multi-purpose to serve as hydropower station, for irrigation purpose, water supply, fishing and eco-tourism, among others.
H added that the total exploitable potentials of hydropower dams in the country is estimated at over 12,220 megawatts, amounting to more than 50,800 gwh of electricity annually. He lamented that out of this only 1930MW has been developed.
According to him, to meet the envisioned growth target, the Energy Commission of Nigeria intends to reach 20,000 MW of grid capacity by 2030, out of which 30 per cent will be through renewable energy.
The Director said at the moment, Nigeria has about 3.1 million irrigable land, out of which 57 per cent has been developed, while actual irrigated area is about 70,000 Ha.
He said statistics from the World Bank revealed that access to water supply in Nigeria has been on the downward trend with access to municipal water supply falling from 32 per cent in 1990 to 7 per cent in 2015, stressing that the large volume of water stored in most of the dams across the country can be processed and transported to homes to overcome the challenges of water supply.
Ajisegiri said: “Studies have shown that Nigeria is among the largest fish consumers in the world with over 1.5 million tons of fish consumed annually. We import over 900,000 metric tons of fish while the domestic catch is estimated at 450,000 yearly.
