Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 17 ISSUE 1
Written by Lawrence Olusola OPARINDE, Taiwo Timothy AMOS, Michael ADESELUKA

Access to credit has been identified as a crucial tool in increasing fish production in the developing countries like Nigeria. ACGSF was established for the purpose of boosting agricultural production (fish production inclusive). It is, therefore, imperative to study the Influence of Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund on fishery development in Nigeria. Annual time-series data between 1981 and 2012 were collected on relevant variables and analysed using Descriptive Statistics, Growth Function and Autoregressive Distributed Lag. The results of the analysis showed that fishery sub-sector was the least financed in the agricultural sector of the economy. This is reflected in low contribution of fishery sub-sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to the fact that the required importance is not given to the sub-sector as it is poorly financed by ACGSF. Also, growth rate of fishery contribution to GDP was 10.63% and the proportion of GDP from fishery to total GDP from Agriculture was 0.005%. In the long run, volume of loan to agriculture and fishery had positive and negative relationship respectively with GDP from fishery. The short run dynamics adjusts to the long run equilibrium at the rate of 34% per annum. In conclusion, fishery sub-sector has been experiencing poor finance from Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund. Therefore, the study recommended that volume of ACGSF credit devoted to fishery sub-sector should be significantly increased if sustainable development will be recorded in the sub-sector. Also, credit given to the sub-sector should be monitored in order to prevent diversion and poor management.

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