By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Farmers in 14 states of the federation will soon receive N41 billion to grow wheat on about 111,025 hectares of land as part of efforts to expand the production of the crop in the country.
The money will be disbursed to the wheat farmers by Heritage Bank Plc in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
To make the programme seamless, Heritage Bank has commenced the registration of the farmers and this is done through the Lagos Commodities and Futures Exchange (LCFE).
The MD/CEO of Heritage Bank, Mr Ifie Sekibo, while addressing newsmen, expressed optimism that the scheme would help reduce the nation’s food import bill by increasing wheat production, create market linkages between smallholders farmers and anchors/processors, create an ecosystem that drives value chain financing, improve access to credit by the smallholder farmers by developing credit history through the initiative and many more.
Mr Sekibo who was represented by the Divisional Head, Agribusiness, Natural Resources & Project Development, Heritage Bank, Olugbenga Awe, stated that the partnership was basically to consummate Wheat Seed Multiplication Project under the CBN’s Brown Revolution Initiative, in order to ensure due diligence on loan administration, monitoring and recovery, which would bring about increase in the domestic production of wheat and close the wide supply gap in the Nigerian agricultural space.
“What we want to achieve is to end importation of seeds and make Nigeria self-sufficient in wheat production.
“We are working with about 30 firms focusing only on seed production and also working with CBN to make sure we register all farmers. We believe working with LCFE will move Nigerian farmers from an informal approach to a structured approach”, he said.
He further explained that whilst riding on the success of the wet season, “we decided to focus on the dry season which comes naturally to our people. As a bank, we are working on two things; one is to ensure the continuous multiplication of seeds and the other is to focus on the grains.
Former Executive Director of Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI), Dr Oluwasina Olabanji commended Heritage Bank for its efforts in reducing wheat importation and saving the country from the $2 billion spent annually on the importation of wheat, calling on other banks to emulate the lender in efforts to achieving wheat sufficiency in the country.
“If this money is saved it could be used for infrastructural development. It is true that there are a lot of linkages not only on financial institutions but also in the value chain, these linkages have been moulded together with the intervention of the CBN and Heritage Bank,” he said.
He explained that the CBN and Heritage Bank’s intervention has become critical due to the high demand for wheat in Nigeria and the inability to meet that demand.
Speaking also, the Managing Director of LCFE, Mr Akinsola Akeredolu-Ale, commended the CBN and Heritage Bank for their support, which have leveraged Nigeria to be on the right track for self-sufficiency in food production.
He said the commodity exchange in partnership with Heritage Bank would provide an enabling environment for farmers, warehouse owners, commodity middlemen and commodity merchants, to be able to trade Wheat.
He noted that LCFE has created a platform that enhances liquidity in the commodity market, enhances the revenue base of the country and enables commodity traders to manage risk.
Business Post reports that Heritage Bank is throwing its weight behind this scheme as one of the participating financial institutions (PFIs) under the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme IABP).
Dipo Olowookere 
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