N53bn projects in agric value chain supported by NIRSAL

 Speaking recently in Kaduna at a zonal sensitisation workshop organised for stakeholders in the agricultural sector, Alhaji Aliyu said NIRSAL has been able to convince commercial banks to lend the required amount of money with its guaranties to different segments in the agriculture value chain. “We were able to convince commercial banks to lend that amount […]

 Speaking recently in Kaduna at a zonal sensitisation workshop organised for stakeholders in the agricultural sector, Alhaji Aliyu said NIRSAL has been able to convince commercial banks to lend the required amount of money with its guaranties to different segments in the agriculture value chain.
 “We were able to convince commercial banks to lend that amount of money with our guaranties to different segments in the agriculture value chain being the need organisation established by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to help facilitate commercial lending from commercial banks to agricultural producers, agro dealers, processors, whole sellers and all other actors along the agricultural value chain to ensure that if they have projects or concepts that are commercially viable, finance and capital will not be an issue for them.
“If the farmers are able to bring together a project in agricultural value chain that makes commercial sense and the bank can finance it, the role of NIRSAL is to ensure that we provide credit risk guarantee to the commercial banks so that they can lend comfortably and securely to that project in the agricultural value chain.
 “The NIRSAL certificate of guarantee is as good as issuing a CBN certificate guarantee, so the banks feel very comfortable to hold our certificate of guarantee and then give that loan, but the guarantee levels vary, there is a 75% guarantee, a 50% guarantee and a 30% guarantee. We give 75% to the primary producers – those are the small farmers that the banks normally run away from; 50% for the processor who is a bit downstream and already has machinery; and 30% for the retailer, the wholesalers and transporters and so on,” he said.