Digital Market Information and Smallholder Fish Supply-Chain Performance: An Empirical Synthesis from Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

Timely market information is central to the performance of smallholder fish supply chains because fish is highly perishable, prices vary across locations and time, and producers and marketers often transact under unequal access to information. This paper examines the role of digital market information in fish-supply-chain performance in Lagos State by synthesizing published empirical evidence from the author's research trajectory. The evidence base includes a 2018 Lagos survey of 180 fish farmers on ICT use, a 2022 Lagos study of 135 smoked and dried fish marketers, a 2024 Kogi State communication study with 187 valid responses, and the author's 2026 Lagos fish-supply-chain market-information study. The synthesis shows a consistent transition from basic mobile access toward market-oriented digital communication, but also demonstrates that access alone is insufficient. In the 2018 Lagos dataset, mobile phones were the most accessible ICT tool for updating aquaculture knowledge (37.2%), 88.9% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that ICT enables fast communication, and 84.5% identified computer literacy as a major constraint. The 2024 study similarly found strong dependence on established extension communication channels: 77.1% received aquaculture innovation information through the Train-and-Visit system, while network, training, language and information-material constraints remained important. The 2022 Lagos marketing study, based on 135 respondents, showed that smoked and dried fish marketing was commercially significant but exposed to operational and market constraints. Taken together, the evidence supports a supply-chain interpretation in which digital information improves commercial decision-making when it is timely, trusted and actionable, but its effect is conditioned by digital literacy, infrastructure, logistics, market organization and the ability to act on price and buyer information. The paper recommends verified multi-channel market-information systems linked to cooperatives, extension, buyer directories, price reporting, digital payments and logistics support.