Cassava growers to get N2.4bn FG loan

The loan interest is 5% and payable in 3 to 4 years.This revelation was made by the Minister for Agriculture Adewumi Adesina during the commissioning of the farming tractor equipment, utility vehicles and office complex of the association at the weekend in Abuja.Adesina said Nigeria, which produces 40 million metric tonnes of cassava annually, is […]

The loan interest is 5% and payable in 3 to 4 years.
This revelation was made by the Minister for Agriculture Adewumi Adesina during the commissioning of the farming tractor equipment, utility vehicles and office complex of the association at the weekend in Abuja.
Adesina said Nigeria, which produces 40 million metric tonnes of cassava annually, is the world largest producer of the product and also poised to be the largest processor of the product in the world.
The funds, which are handled by the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), will help cassava growers in the country to produce the quantity needed to meet the 20 per cent cassava flour inclusion in bread.
Adesina said that the Bank of Agriculture was set to begin the disbursement of the N2. 4 billion to cassava growers and processors at 5% interest rate.
According to him, 300 Agriculture Equipment Hiring Enterprises (AEHE) located in cassava production clusters were made available by the Ministry, as part of the cassava initiative intervention fund.
The minister promised Nigerians that by 2015, Nigeria will surpass the target of adding 20 million metric tonnes of food to the national food output set at the time of launching the ATA in 2011.
“Nigeria shall be free from the shackles of the wheat importers”, he said.
Adesina hopes that future Nigerian millionaires and billionaires will emerge from agriculture, explaining that about N240 billion would be saved with the 20% infusion of cassava and sorghum into bread.