The importance of a study on peasant credit programs can never be overemphasized because of the importance of credit in agricultural production. Emphasis on commercial bank credit is needed, over other available sources in Nigeria, for fishing sub-sector of agriculture to achieve the expected fish production expansion. The present paper examines the use of commercial bank credit in Nigeria and finds that non-fishing income (b = –0.38), farming experience (b = –0.26), lending rate of other sources of credit (b = 0.49), membership of cooperative society or farmers’ group (b = –0.23) and age of the fish farmers (b = 0.11) are the key determinants. Therefore, the policies, programs and promotional efforts which consider these attributes are likely to be most successful in enhancing the rate of use of commercial bank credit in Nigeria.

The issue of appropriate funding or lending to agriculture continues to occupy the central position in the development of agriculture in many developing countries. There are formal and informal sources of lending. Informal sources include relations, friends, merchants and moneylenders which are usually made directly to the borrowers by the lender, while formal sources include commercial banks, specialized banks, savings and credit institutions. These institutions have specified and written procedures to administer farm credit and do have a legal backing. Commercial banks were identified, over half a century ago, as better sources over informal and some specialized financial institutions owned by the government (Omole and Fatokun, 1999). Over the years, fish farmers have patronized informal sources of credit. The repayment of principal with high rate of interest charged by the informal lenders has kept the farmers in a permanent state of penury. In a bid to repay informal loans, they engage in off-farm hired labor and petty trading which prevent them from full-time concentration on their fishing. Although specialized financial institutions like the Nigerian Agriculture, Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB) exist, these institutions have not been able to cope with the financial needs of the fish farmers in the country.

The increased production demands the use of additional farm inputs that require investment which the farmers cannot finance from their savings, except engaging in some off-farm employment activities or resorting to borrowing (World Bank, 1975). Agricultural credit is not without problems. While the above stylized facts could also be regarded as part of agricultural credit problems, other problems of agricultural credit have been the incidences of poor loan repayment, poor loan supervision, cumbersome lending procedures, etc. (Awoyemi and Olowa, 2010). These problems are more associated with informal sources and specialized financial institutions established by the government to give credit to fish farmers, as the misconception of such credit as ‘national cake’ by farmers and civil service mentality of officers of these banks impose docility on their roles of loan supervision and repayment monitoring.