Blue Economy and the Fisheries Sector in Nigeria: Analysis of the Performance of Capture and Aquaculture Fisheries to Fish Production and Implication on Economic Growth

The study investigated the exploitation of marine fisheries/aquaculture sector of the Blue Economy in Nigeria with the aim of identifying the performance of both capture and aquaculture fisheries production and their contribution to economic growth in terms of the total domestic annual fish production and the trend of annual fish demand and domestic production in Nigeria using secondary data. Descriptive and Multiple Regression statistical techniques were employed in the data analysis. The trend analysis results indicate that aquaculture production contributes more than capture fisheries to Nigeria’s GDP as the r2=0.447 for aquaculture production is greater than the r2=0.089 for capture fisheries, indicating that aquaculture production is more significant and has more prospect of contributing to the country’s GDP than capture fisheries. The results affirm aquaculture as a fast growing subsector, growing at an Average Annual Growth Rate (AAGR) of 6.67% compared to the 4.19% for capture fisheries. The Regression B-value of 1.195 for capture fisheries indicates that an increase in capture fisheries production will results to about 0.31 unit increase in GDP while an increase in aquaculture production by same value will results to 0.95 unit increase in GDP, which confirms the findings. The study concludes that the potential of the fisheries sector in Nigeria is not fully exploited and has limited the ability of Nigeria to unlock the economic benefits offered by the sector, with severe implications on the nation’s overall economic growth and development. The need for the government and stakeholders in the marine sector to finance deep sea fishing through investment in modern fishing vessels and appropriate gear and fish harvesting facilities such as processing and storage and transportation/docking is suggested.