By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has promised to assist farmer in the country produce a gross revenue of N135 billion under the 2018 wet season.
This it plans to achieve by supporting about 500,000 smallholder farmers under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) for the 2018 wet season farming.
“Our plan under the 2018 wet season under the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme for which NIRSAL is a participating financing institution is to assist farmers to produce about 1.5 million tonnes of grains at an average value of N90,000 per tonne, the chief executive of NIRSAL, Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed, disclosed.
The NIRSAL chief pointed out that the assistance represents “about 2000 percent increase from our first outing under the Anchor Borrowers Programme.”
He said the agency hopes to “support the cultivation of about 600,000 hectares,” pointing out that, “If you convert this 500,000 farmers operating on 600,000 hectares, we are talking of a target grain product equivalent of about 1.5 million metric tonnes of grain at an average value of N90,000 per tonne of grain.”
“It means that with the support of the insurance company and the support of the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme, the Nigerian farmers under the NIRSAL window will likely produce a gross revenue of N135billion under the 2018 wet season,” he said.
According to Mr Abdulhameed, agriculture remains the largest employer of labour in the country, providing jobs for more than 60 percent of the population.
Adedapo Adesanya