Review agric lending policy, lawmaker tells Buhari

Giving the advice recently in an interview with Daily Trust, Hon. Aminu Foni, a member of the Borno State House of Assembly representing Chibok, who is also National President of the National Groundnut Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (NGROPPMAN), lamented that due to stringent conditions of banks, members of the association who applied […]

Giving the advice recently in an interview with Daily Trust, Hon. Aminu Foni, a member of the Borno State House of Assembly representing Chibok, who is also National President of the National Groundnut Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (NGROPPMAN), lamented that due to stringent conditions of banks, members of the association who applied for loans since June last year could not get them up till now.
“Not getting the loan is as a result of stringent conditions of the banks, asking farmers for equity mortgage after 25% equity by farmers and 75% by NIRSAL,” the lawmaker noted, adding that the worst hit are the small-scale farmers who are between 70 – 75% in the agricultural sector of the economy.
The president said with easy access to credit among others, the association’s plan is to double the country’s groundnut production by 2020 as it stood at about 2.9 million metric tonnes in 2012.
He said the association has trained and retrained some members across the country and that they are also assisting them with improved varieties to boost production.