Traditionally, Rwandans have had a somehow fishy relationship with fish as most never ate it. There is however, a noticeable surge in appetite for the aquatic creatures of late that is overwhelming local production capacity—a dilemma that also presents a huge potential for job creation.

"Today, more and more Rwandans want to eat fish, unfortunately there’s not enough production locally leaving a gap that has to be filled by huge imports from the region, but this makes fish unaffordable to most Rwandans,” says Dr Wilson Rutaganira, the Aquaculture and Fisheries programme coordinator at the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB).

Last Wednesday, Rutaganira travelled with The Sunday Times to Mulindi, in Gasabo district to meet a person he describes as "one of the best fish farmers.”

Located in the backyard of the Mulindi market are several fishponds, five to be exact, which are breeding 56,900 fish seeds on a 0.86 hectare piece of wetland.

It turns out that one of Rutaganira’s "best fish farmers” is not an ordinary resident of Mulindi, but a smart journalist who has seen big potential in fish farming.

Rutaganira revealed that one of Rwanda’s most established fish farmers is also one of the country’s longest serving journalists, Themistocles Hakizimana, who has spent twenty years reporting for Reuters, an international news agency.

"I have three fish farms, this one at Mulindi and two others located in Muhazi and Cyamuli with over 180, 000 fish in them,” says the Journalist cum fish farmer.

Hakizimana is one of less than ten individual commercial fish farmers in the country who are attempting to produce 112,000 tons of fish that Rwanda needs every year if Rwandans were to consistently have fish on their menu.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) a person should eat an equivalent of at least 14kgs of fish every year. However, at the moment, on average, a Rwandan eats just 2.3kgs of fish every year—way below the sub-Saharan Africa per capita fish consumption of 6.7kg.

Expensive fish

Francis Nzamwita is a cab driver. He says while he loves fish so much he can only afford to have it on the family menu once a month.

His experience is shared by many a Rwandan. Specioza Kwihangana, a retired civil servant in Kicukiro, also says fish is rare on her family menu because of the prohibitive cost. One kilogram of fish goes for Rwf3, 000 or above (about $5), depending on where you buy it from.

At the busy Kimironko market in Kicukiro District, Aline Nyirakadali is a fish vendor but her stall is empty save for a few lousy-looking tilapias. While demand is assured, Nyirakadali’s main problem is scarcity of supplies.

"We buy from local farmers at Rwf2, 000 per Kg and Rwf 2500 for imported supplies of which we have to factor in our profits and costs which makes fish more expensive than meat,” she explains.

Fish farmer Hakizimana says he needs to produce at least 20 tons of fish per week to satisfy demand from his clients, but he would need to triple his current investment to meet that target.

All efforts combined, fish captured on Rwanda’s 19 lakes, together with harvests by farmers such as Hakizimana, managed to yield 24,500 tons as of June 2014. With all factors considered, this is a commendable improvement from a paltry 7,000 tons produced in 2006/7.

There are various ear-candy tales about fish and Rwandans. While no scientific research has been done to explore the fish eating culture in Rwanda, there’s general consensus that traditionally, Rwandans tend to be selective with what they eat.

Many years ago, at 14 years of age, Dr Rutaganira may not have known that he would be a national fisheries coordinator in his adulthood, but he shared a childhood experience that sheds some light on why historically, the fish eating culture was low among Rwandans.

"I was probably 14 when I ate fish for the first time and my grandmother had to wash me 14 times before I entered the house that day,” says the humorous scientist. Despite its immense nutritious values, many admit they can’t stand the smell of fish and in strict families; it has been banned from households.

But times have drastically changed, reckons Rutaganira. Among the Children, fish is being invited to curb malnutrition while in adults; there are irresistible benefits such as good memory. It’s this new discourse that has seen appetite for fish among Rwandans surge and in the process overwhelming local production.

"So today we are importing 15,000 tons s of fresh fish and another 15,000 of [smocked] fish every year—figures that are costing us a huge amount of foreign exchange,” notes Rutaganira.

An untapped goldmine

This dilemma to quench appetite for fish among Rwandans also presents immense opportunities including job creation and fish exports to countries such as DRC and Congo Brazzaville that currently import hundreds of thousands of fish from as far as China, annually.

This could earn Rwanda not only foreign currency but also contribute to attainment of EDPRS II targets of diversifying exports and creating 200, 000 jobs annually. For instance, to produce one metric ton of fish, according to Rutaganira, one would employ at least ten people.

"So our target of producing 80, 000 tons every year in simple terms would create at least 800, 000 jobs per annum,” Rutaganira said.

While this projection sounds fancy on paper, budget allocation to the sector is still low at only about Rwf350million this financial year. This, Rutaganira says, is too small to realise the sector’s full potential.

Currently, there are about 70 fishing cooperatives operating on various water bodies in the country, including shared lakes such as Lake Kivu on which over 30 of those cooperatives operate.

In total, over 200, 000 Rwandans are directly employed by the fisheries sector with potential for more to join them.

Another 150 fish farming groups operating on over 220 hectares of wetland are engaged in off lake fish farming, mainly concentrated in Southern Province, a direct intervention by the government because the province has the least number of lakes.

However, many of these groups don’t have money to invest in major commercial production.

Fish farming, Rutaganira admits, is very expensive and most of the groups can’t afford to manage these ponds. As a result, individual farmers such as Hakizimana who have money to invest are negotiating and leasing away these farms from the cooperatives.

For instance, Hakizimana pays Rwf1.5 million every year to lease his Mulindi fish farm. During the interview with The Sunday Times last week, a call came in from Gisenyi where another individual farmer wanted Rutaganira to help him negotiate with a certain local group to take over some redundant fish farming facilities.

"I was lucky because I had a substantial amount of starting capital from my savings, otherwise I went to banks and I was denied a loan. Banks had no faith in my project,” reveals Hakizimana. All his investments have been funded using personal resources.

It’s a situation that frustrates Rutaganira very much; the fact that no bank is willing to fund fish farming. They care for a meal of fish but not those who need funding to produce more.

Rutaganira recalls a chat he had with central bank governor, John Rwangombwa during his time as finance minister. He shared his attractive fish projections, and the minister was convinced of the sector’s potential but his tenure didn’t last long enough to see him allocate the fisheries sector enough resources in the budget.

According to Rutaganira, if the government gave fisheries just $15million to be invested in fish-cage farming, in three years, they would be generating 80, 000 tons earning around Rwf160 billion a year.

It’s probably a discussion he might need to have with the Minister of Finance, Claver Gatete, who’s looking to support anything with reasonable potential to help attain major government targets such as exports and jobs creation.

Talking about fish cage farming, there are about 800 of them mainly on Lake Kivu. They harvest every after six months when the fish is 400 to 500 grams heavy. In three months time, Journalist Hakizimana will be harvesting from his Mulindi farm and he expects to make over Rwf30million but that’s after investing over Rwf15million.

Perhaps one of the main problems affecting Rwanda’s fish farmers is the expensive fish feeds that have to be imported from Uganda. According to Antoine Mvuyekure, the 53-year-old supervisor on Hakizimana’s Mulindi farm, they pour over 40kg of feeds everyday into the ponds but each Kilogram of feeds costs about Rwf500.

Farmers prefer to import feeds from Uganda because those that are made locally are of poor quality. But Rutaganira reveals that a business savvy investor has seized the opportunity and has set up a factory that will soon produce fish feeds.