The overall objective of this research is to carry out an environmental analysis and diagnosis of catfish enterprises in Benue State, Nigeria. A sample size of 143 catfish production enterprises was selected through simple stratified multi-stage random sampling design. A successful response rate of 79.7% was achieved as 114 of the questionnaires were considered acceptable. Majority of the respondents were of the opinion that government collaboration with local and foreign organizations was not

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... nough and had produced a weak threat to catfish enterprises. Majority of the respondents had a strong threat view to the fact that interest rates, value of the Naira (N) and tax rates discouraged new investment and business expansion. A more specific ETOP was developed for each key environmental factor by using the critical indices for each factor. This was done for determining the amount of opportunities and threats likely in the near future for five business environment features. Since most of the factors were positive, if the firm has the resources and competences, the obvious choice is to employ growth strategy. Managerial attitude towards risk and corporate politics are factors that could encourage growth strategy away from maintenance strategy.