By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has extended a hand of partnership to the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) to enhance their livelihood after retirement.
This was disclosed by Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIRSAL during his keynote address at the 17th All Nigeria Editors’ Conference (ANEC) 2021, organised by the guild on Friday in Abuja.
Mr Abdulhameed said there were many opportunities and services at NIRSAL that the Nigerian editors could benefit from, adding that the organisation was ready to partner with the guild.
“What NIRSAL would do with the NGE is to speak with them through a technical team set up by the guild and create a model for upstream and downstream of how the guild can benefit from the various opportunities in NIRSAL.
“Then, we optimise these models so that when we put in one naira, we can get three Naira in returns, because, it is not economically wise to put in one naira and get one naira.
“The agriculture sector is subject to science and modelling. So when we optimise your project with you, we then optimise financial solutions. Then we approach the bank.
“My call of action to the guild is, how can we work with you to create a technical pilot model to benefit the guild,” Mr Abdulhameed said.
He urged members of the NGE to understand that agriculture was a business venture, adding that the sector contributed to about 24 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP).
He stressed that in Brazil and Egypt, especially in the Nile Valley, agriculture has been passed from generation to generation, saying it had the potential of enhancing the livelihood of the citizens.
According to him, it is regrettable that a lot of farmers think agriculture only begins and ends with production.
He said production was an aspect of agriculture, there was a need for other chains like packaging to enhance value.
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