Obasanjo says his fish farming business is feeling the impact of high Nigerian diesel costs

FORMER president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has lamented the fact that his fish farming business is suffering from the high cost of diesel in the country and the constant need to provide his own electricity.

In what is a major impediment to its development, Nigeria only generates about 7,000MW of electricity, of which it can only distribute 4,000MW. This is wholly inadequate given that the economy requires about 50,000MW to operate properly and as a result, most Nigerians are reliant on private generators for their electricity.

Due to the inadequate power supply, everyone in Nigeria now uses private generators, which apart from being an environmental hazard, has made electricity very expensive. Nigeria is currently the world's biggest importer of small and medium generators and is the world's second biggest importer of large generators.

Even by African standards, Nigeria's power generation is very poor as Egypt generates 59,063MW of electricity and 58,095MW is generated in South Africa. Adding that even he is suffering from the effects of epileptic power supply, Chief Obasanjo said that the development has had an adverse effect on his fish business. 

Speaking during a congress of the South West Fish Farmers Price Sustainability Group in Abeokuta, he noted that fish farmers in the country might run out of business due to daily increase in the prices of fish feed and the high cost of diesel. He also noted that the development would result in a shortage of fish across the country.

Chief Obasanjo said: “The current price of diesel at N800 per litre, production of a kilogramme of fish is N1,400. In order to make very marginal profit, farmers can’t sell less than N1,500 as anything short of that amounts to an outright loss. 

“The price of diesel has gone high because the management of this country is not what it should be and it is as simple as that. Then, what will happen is that, particularly those of us who have to use a bit of diesel in producing fish, we will completely go bankrupt and when that happens, Nigerian will become a dumping ground for foreign fish.

 “Fish production will be out of reach and then, people will be producing fish outside Nigeria and be dumping it here and you will go jobless, poor and indigent. So, what do we have to do? We want to sustain fish production and we must be able to take care of those who are going to eat and those of us who are producing.” 

Amoo Tunbosun, the president of the Fish Farmers Association of Nigeria, said his members cannot continue to produce at the mercy of the buyers, considering the high cost of feed, diesel and other production outlays.  He added that they now need to take their destiny in their own hands.