The Institute was one of the twenty-five Agricultural Research institutes then under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology. Due to the reorganization of some Research Institutes within the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology in 1987, the mandate of the Institute changed from multi-commodity as listed above to mono-commodity, namely Freshwater Fisheries with emphasis on Hydrology, Fish Biology, Fisheries Management, Limnology, Environment, Fisheries Technology, Hatchery Management, Aquaculture, Socio-economics, Extension Liaison services and training. The name of the Institute changed to “National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research” to reflect the new mandate.