In support of the
diversification drive of the Federal Government, the Bank of Agriculture (BOA)
is considering a single digit interest rate for farmers in the country.
Managing Director and Chief
Executive of the bank, Prof. Danbala Danju said the Federal Ministry of
Agriculture and rural development, in conjunction with the bank, was
considering the review, as well as other incentives to ensure massive
investments in agriculture.
Danju, at an international
conference on agriculture with the theme: “Back to Agriculture”, held in Lagos,
said the minister of agriculture was thinking in that line, as “a situation
where farmers in other countries are been offered between two to four per cent
where we are charging 14 per cent, taking into consideration administrative
charges among other charges, is not conducive for investments in agriculture.”
Presenting a paper titled:
“Financing agriculture for economic growth in Nigeria”, he revealed that the
bank is already piloting an initiative of the CBN.“The Central Bank has set
aside about N200 billion. We will get the fund from the CBN and finance the
input of farmers.”
He said about 75,000 farmers
have benefited from loans from the BOA in the last three months and the targets
is now about three hundred thousand farmers for the wet season, with the hoping
of increasing the number as operations are been scaled-up in various parts of
the country.
“The aquaculture loan is
targeted at key crops like, rice, wheat and tomatoes borrowed from CBN at two
per cent and lend it to farmers at nine per cent with a payment period of one
year and we are thinking of developing payment structure that would be based on
production cycle. Up till now, farmers consider funds from bank of agriculture
as part of national cake. We have for instance about N20 Billion of defaulters,
we been advertising for people to come and pay back,” he said.
“The bank of agriculture
like every other Banks could only survive if windows credits are paid back.
Non-payment is why we are introducing other mechanism first to identify
farmers. Those who came to us in the past were non-farmers. We are now
introducing bank verification numbers. We are taking steps to see for instance,
if you say you have one or two hectares of lands, we have to verify buying GPS
approach system to know the exact location amongst other measures.”
According to him, the bank
is exploring the concept of land bank, which has been tried particularly in
China and other countries with much success. “This is to ensure that people
have access to land especially commercial land for agriculture and also to
utilise the vast un-utilised land that would be available through the land bank
initiative. We will be asking state governments to give us like 50,000 hectares
so that we can lease out for agricultural development and on profit basis.
We have issued directives to
farmers, groups of farmers and associations to form agricultural cooperatives.
We also have collaborations with state governments, with ministries, agencies
as well as international partners like world bank, Africa development bank and
several bi-lateral developmental institutions with a view to bring in more
investment to support agro-business investment”.
He said the bank was
focusing on input procurements like fertilizers, seeds, and development of
agricultural mechanisation products and special consideration for Farmers in
Nigeria especially, women who are seen as lacking access to finance as well as
the youths in agriculture programme.
“We are thinking of major
shift towards digital agriculture, Dr. Adeshina pioneered it here and the
current Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh and the secretary general of
Nigerian Agro-business group also shares the view in which very soon in
Nigeria, we would have data bank for farmers, creating an ecosystem where you
have input providers, the farmers, the marketers interacting in the same
environment which will take Nigeria to a higher level in agricultural
development.”
“Investment in agriculture
requires not only the federal government but also private sectors as well as
international development partners. We are trying to restructure the Bank of
Agriculture in such a way that we are able to provide technological resources,
financial resources, extension services that is why we are partnering with
groups, the institutions and research organisations finance and all these are
aimed to have a professional and specialist bank of agriculture that would
achieve the dream of agricultural transformation that we started before”, he
explained.
In her presentation, the
Director General of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, (FIIRO), Dr.
Mrs. Gloria Elemo said agriculture revolution could put the nation back on the
track as the over dependency on the oil sector brought about downturn moment in
the once vibrant agricultural sector.
Elemo told the gathering
that the institute was ready to foster growth in the agriculture sector with
over 250,000 technologies on ground for agriculture and agro-alied businesses
stressing that operators in the sector should contact the institute for
deployment of the initiative.
Also speaking, acting deputy
high commissioner and director, Uk trade and investment, Nigeria, Mr. Ahmed
Bashir MBE disclosed that Nigeria has the potential to rise to world class in
agriculture if constraint to growth in the sector are eliminated and skills are
built through market development programmes as adopted in the United Kingdom
which rely on high tech sector for storage, processing and livestock farming.
The convener of the event,
Prof Pat Utomi of the Centre for Value and Leadership bemoaned lip service
attention been given to the agricultural sector in the last 30 years noting
that the chickens have come home to roost.
“We see Suadi Arabia and
other oil producing countries restructuring and diversifying aggressively,
somehow the Nigerian elite seems to be waiting for oil prices to rise again
oblivious of the fact that this finite resources already vulnerable to
renewable energy sources and the impact of alternative fossil fuel driven by
new technology,” he said.
Others speakers at the event
also urged government and other stakeholders to massively deploy all necessary
skills to ensure growth, boost the capacity of farmers, food security and
sufficiency to match up with the growth in population.
Credit:Guardian
No comments:
Post a Comment