This was disclosed by Executive Secretary, Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Engineer Mustapha Bello, at the flag- off of implementation of the Catfish Industry Value Chain Development held at the commission's headquarters in Abuja, yesterday.
According to him, the World Bank selected catfish farming as an industry that can offer strong potential for growth and provision of employment, based on Business Development Services (BDS) assistance. He added that that in addition to the $32 million given by the World Bank, the Federal Government gave N30 million to help in financing the project.
Bello said out of the five firms that expressed interest to handle the project, in collaboration with the World Bank, Aquaculture Production Technology (APT) of Isreal, working with two Nigerian companies, namely Quick Projects Ltd and Eagleflair Consulting Ltd, was selected to implement the Catfish Industry Value Chain.
APT Director, Dr Dan Cohen, expressed his company's desire to make Nigeria a force to reckon with in catfish farming. It hope to achieve this through capacity building and the establishment of demonstration farms using the BDS grants to encourage local farmers.