FirstBank Reiterates Support For Agric Business in Nigeria
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of First Bank, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan
First Bank Nigeria Limited has reiterated its commitment to support agricultural development as well as providing the needed financial services to farmers and ensuring the growth of agro businesses in Nigeria.
They also called on farmers and stakeholders in agricultural value chain to avail themselves with the available agricultural financing solutions the bank is providing to ensure the growth of the sector.
Speaking at the third edition of First Bank Agricultural Exhibition with the theme: “Agricultural Value Chain: “Spotlighting Opportunities and Managing Risks” in Lagos at the weekend, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, said the bank has in the past 125 years of operations focused on financing agricultural development as well as providing support for the growth of agricbusinesses in the country.
“Agricultural financing has been and still is a core part of our business in FirstBank today. As you may all be aware, this is First Bank’s 125th anniversary year. It is worthy of note that we commenced operations with a major strategic focus on financing agriculture development as well as enabling farmers and agro businesses. We are therefore celebrating 125 years of supporting agriculture and agric business development in Nigeria,” Adeduntan said.
While appreciating the imperative of the extensive agricultural value chain; the position of the agricultural sector as a major contributor to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as significance in generating FOREX earnings, employment and import substitution and its ability to eradicate hunger and poverty, Mr. Adeduntan, said First Bank has supported several state governments on Agricultural Development Trust Fund Scheme.
Trust Fund Scheme, according to him, is an initiative designed to provide credit facilities to small scale farmers who would otherwise be constrained by the lack of collaterals.
According to him, “We are partnering with a good number of states on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Accelerated Agric Development Scheme (ADDS). Notably we have disbursed more than N40 billion under the CBN’s Paddy Aggregation Scheme (PAS),” he added.
Under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS), the Federal Government and Central Bank initiative designed to provide long tenured credit facilities to commercial agricultural enterprises at single digit interest rate, FirstBank MD said the bank has supported 118 projects (over 23%) of the total 509 projects by all the banks put together.
Under the initiative, he said the bank has disbursed over N100 billion for the project spread across input supplies, primary production, processing and marketing to obligors which include small, medium and large-scale enterprise in the agricultural value chain just as he said that the Bank is supporting research and development through the endowment of professorial chairs in Agriculture in some Nigerian Universities.
Also speaking, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, said the Federal Government is working to review agricultural policies to strengthen value chain and further tackle poverty and unemployment rate in the country.
He said that government would also create an enabling environment that would promote agro industrialisation for sustainable growth and development.
He explained that government focus would be on review of agricultural policies to make them friendlier.
Nanono said apart from government’s resolve to review agricultural policies to make them friendlier, other focus of the government would be on local agric business development, responsible agriculture investment, agricultural education and mechanisation of technical and trading facilities for farmers.
He said the country need a formidable agricultural sector to eradicate poverty, achieve good health and general wellbeing of the citizenry.
The minister said that Agric ministry would partner with relevant stakeholders in agriculture to transform the sector to boost production and employment that would enhance agricultural transformation which he said was key to achieving sustainable growth and development in Nigeria.
The key note speaker, Prof Ben Oramah, who was represented at the event by the Senior Manager, Export Development, Africa Export, Import Bank, Mr. Babajide Sodipo, called on government to ensure sustainability of its policies.
He also called on government to subsidise farmers instead of fuel so that farmers would continue to contribute significantly to the nation’s GDP.
Sodipo urged the stakeholders in the agricultural value chain to grow their knowledge in order to derisk the sector just as he encouraged the engagement of proper risk management mechanism that will take care of the losses.
In his goodwill message, the Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Rotomi Okeredolu who was represented by Pastor Akiin Olotu, called on government to look into the community road network.
“Our government should make concerted efforts and deliberate policies to transform our urban road to provide access to link the communities with the cities,” he said.
He appealed to the Federal government for a window to be created through the CBN to address land clearing problem in the Southern part of the country.
