Agric loans: Katsina provides N250m collateral for farmers

Funtua said the money is not to be given to farmers as loan but to be used as collateral in banks to enable farmers from the state to easily obtain agricultural loans, adding that the state will mobilise farmers through the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) and other associations to access the loans if […]

Funtua said the money is not to be given to farmers as loan but to be used as collateral in banks to enable farmers from the state to easily obtain agricultural loans, adding that the state will mobilise farmers through the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) and other associations to access the loans if they need them.
Speaking with Daily Trust on phone, Adamu noted that government serves as guarantor sometimes to various farmers’ associations to access agricultural loans for their respective members.
According to him, the state government provided a N250 million interest free revolving loan to farmers associations which they usually use as collateral for agricultural loans from CBN and Bank of
Agriculture and other agricultural financing schemes.
“We don’t apply nor receive but we encourage our farmers’ associations to look out for these loans and apply and we went further even to set the collateral for them under our commercial agriculture scheme,” he said.
He said only recently, he was made to understand that AFAN has benefited from such a facility but not on behalf of the government,adding that “all we do as government is to provide them with the enabling environment if they want to seek for the loans.”
However, he said,  participation from such schemes whether by state of federal government is very low within the various farmers’ associations.
Also speaking, Secretary of National Cotton Association of Nigerian in Katsina, Alhaji Samaila Lawal, said the union has benefited from a N200 million loan scheme which the national body of the association got from the Bank of Agriculture and gave the state branch N15 million to disburse to its members with a single digit interest rate.