IMION unveils 5-pillar plan to revive Nigeria’s fisheries sector
Lagos, Oct. 7, 2026, The International Maritime Institute of Nigeria (IMION) has unveiled a five-pillar strategy to safeguard Nigeria’s fisheries and aquaculture sectors and boost the country’s Blue Economy.
The Director-General of IMION, Rear Adm. Thaddeus Udofia (rtd.), unveiled the framework in a statement signed by the institute’s Head of Communication and Marketing, Dr Bashir Ambi, and made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Lagos.
Udofia warned that Nigeria’s marine resources were at risk of collapse, stressing the need for urgent action, disciplined implementation and measurable performance indicators to revive the fisheries sector.
He said sustainability required deliberate action, noting that the country could not harvest tomorrow what it destroyed or failed to nurture today.
According to him, the framework was designed to protect coastal livelihoods, address food insecurity and drive economic growth through expansion of the Blue Economy.
He identified unified regulatory enforcement as the first pillar, calling for harmonisation of the roles of maritime security agencies, port regulators and fisheries departments.
Udofia said the gains recorded by the Nigerian Navy in suppressing piracy and combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing should be extended to the domestic fisheries sector.
He identified data-driven maritime policy as the second pillar, urging the Federal Government to strengthen the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) and IMION to generate reliable fish-stock assessment data.
He said policies on catch limits, closed seasons and marine protected areas should be based on credible scientific data and strictly enforced.
The IMION director-general identified aggressive aquaculture transition as the third pillar, calling for a shift from unpredictable wild-capture fisheries to technology-driven aquaculture systems.
He said the deployment of modern cage culture in coastal lagoons, alongside cold-chain infrastructure and improved processing technology, would reduce post-harvest losses and help address food shortages.
Udofia also called for greater investment in institutional training to transform fishing from a subsistence activity into a modern, wealth-generating enterprise, particularly for women and youths.
He identified advanced intelligence monitoring as the fourth pillar, advocating the deployment of vessel monitoring systems, satellite surveillance and data-driven marine spatial planning.
The fifth pillar, he said, was community-led co-management, which involved institutionalising community-based fisheries management and granting cooperatives legitimate co-management rights to support conservation.
