Director-General of the International Maritime Institute of Nigeria (IMION), Rear Admiral Thaddeus Udofia (Rtd), has said Nigeria’s frozen fish and seafood imports rose to $866 million in 2025, up from $606 million in 2023, despite the country’s vast marine and inland fisheries resources.

Udofia disclosed this yesterday at the 2026 National Conference on Sustainable Fishing organised by the Maritime Correspondents’ Organisation of Nigeria (MARCON), with the theme, ‘Sustainable Fishing in Nigeria: Pathways to Growth, Food Security and Coastal Livelihoods’.

According to data from the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN COMTRADE), cited by the IMION DG, Nigeria’s frozen fish and seafood imports increased from $606 million in 2023 to $688.5 million in 2024 and $866 million in 2025.

He said the figures represented a compound yearly growth rate of 19.54 per cent, describing the development as a paradox given Nigeria’s abundant fisheries resources.

Udofia said Nigeria’s inability to translate its fisheries endowment into domestic seafood sufficiency remained a major challenge to food security and economic development. He noted that the country has a maritime domain spanning about 853 kilometres of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and extending 200 nautical miles into the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), in addition to extensive inland waterways, creeks, estuaries and the Niger Delta Basin.