When BoA disburses N80m to Nasarawa cassava growers

Combining other crops, including tubers and grains, which she has farmed all her  life, Maimuna has had the fair share of what millions of farmers in the country face: difficulties and uncertainties.Her cassava farm measures about a hectare along Lafia-Shendam Road. It is the biggest she has ever cultivated. “The soil has become less productive,” […]

Combining other crops, including tubers and grains, which she has farmed all her  life, Maimuna has had the fair share of what millions of farmers in the country face: difficulties and uncertainties.
Her cassava farm measures about a hectare along Lafia-Shendam Road. It is the biggest she has ever cultivated.
“The soil has become less productive,” she told this reporter, explaining in Hausa that the soil has been overused, and hardly produces good tubers. “We need fertilizer. But the commodity hardly comes. When it does, we pay with all our income from the farm.”
One would think Hajiya Maimuna, a mother of seven children – all of them grown up – would quit, or at best maintain just the small size she is farming. But she told this reporter of her plans to expand.
“I am planning hitting two hectares, and more,” she said. She plans executing this expansion next cropping season, after harvest of the current farm by March.  
The cassava farmer spoke to Daily Trust, last week, at the premises of the Lafia branch of Bank of Agriculture (BOA). She was there with 537 other growers of cassava across Nasarawa State, with smiles planted on their faces.
It was the event of distribution of N80 million soft loans to 538 members of Nigerian Cassava Growers Association (NCGA), in Nasarawa.
The farmers filed out and received their offer letters to access the BOA loan, for the next cropping season which Hajiya Maimuna plans for.
The soft loan package was given in line with the bank’s objective to boost productivity of farmers, especially in rural areas. The loan has a repayment period of 18 months while the bank and the facilitating body, NCGA, are to monitor the utilization of the loan and the repayment.
BOA is Nigeria’s premier agricultural and rural development finance institution, wholly owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the bank’s website says. The ownership structure is – Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 40 percent and Federal Ministry of Finance Incorporated 60 percent. The bank is supervised by Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
The bank was incorporated as Nigerian Agricultural Bank (NAB) in 1973 and in 1978, it was renamed Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank (NACB).
Subsequently in 2000, it was merged with the Peoples Bank of Nigeria (PBN) and took over the risk assets of Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP) to become Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank Limited (NACRDB), a name considered by many as too long.
A plan to reposition the bank into an effective and sustainable national agricultural and rural development finance institution in 2010 led to a further name change to BOA.
“We provide affordable credit facilities to segments of the Nigerian society who have little access to the services of conventional banks. We accept savings deposit from customers and encourage banking habits at the grassroots,” the bank says on its website.
The Cassava Growers Association, with its Nasarawa branch formed in 2004, according to the secretary, Alhaji Mohammed Ari Akashe, has membership strength of 3,000. The association, between 2006 and now, has facilitated three loans for its members, the last been BOA’s N80 million.
Ahmed Waziri, BOA’s Executive Director, Wholesale Financing, said at the event of the disbursement of the loan which was attended by state government officials, that the bank has the mandate of delivering credit facilities to all segments of the agriculture value chain.
The Executive Director, who was represented by Ahmed Yahaya, Head of Classified Risk, said that BOA is a leading institution in poverty reduction and rural development in the country, with 201 outlets across the country, including five in Nasarawa, targeted at providing credit facilities to the remote rural poor in order to boost their economic wellbeing.
He said 70 percent of the bank’s loan was given to small scale farmers while large scale farmers get 30 percent.
He urged for collaboration of other stakeholders, especially state governments, with BOA towards the realization of the Federal Government’s transformation agenda in the agricultural sector, just as he encouraged other crop farmers to emulate the cassava growers by forming cooperatives that would enable them access loan from BOA.
On the criteria for accessing the facility, Lafia branch head of the bank, Mallam Muhammad Kabiru Rafindadi said all beneficiaries were members of the Cassava Growers Association with functional accounts with the bank. He said there is adequate mechanism in place to monitor and ensure that the loan is appropriately utilized and repaid.
Danladi Madaki, Nasarawa State Commissioner of Agriculture and Natural Resources, commended BOA for the gesture and assured of the ministry’s collaboration towards meeting the goal of the scheme.
The commissioner spoke of Nasarawa’s commitment to agricultural development, saying the sector accounts for 10 percent of the 2014 budget.
State chairman of the association, Mr. Michael Sabo Okpo, urged beneficiaries to utilize the loan for the purpose it was meant for, promising that the association will facilitate bigger facilities for them.
Beneficiaries spoken to expressed delight over the loan and promised to utilize the facility, as well as abide by all conditions given them.
Hajiya Maimuna, said that the loan would boost her farming activities.
Mr. Suraka Samke and Hamza Madaki from Keana and Lafia local government areas respectively, said the loan will help them to expand their cassava production, engage more hands and procuret inputs.
Madaki particularly said that Nasarawa is the highest producer of cassava in the country with the annual yield of over 2 million metric tonnes cultivated in 120, 751 hectares of land.
Mr. Stephen Kpama, Programme Manager, Nasarawa Agricultural Development Programme (NADP), while commending BOA for the loan, noted that lack of access to credit facilities have been the bane of agricultural growth in the state.
Kpama, who also stressed the need for the prompt repayment of the loan, advised the bank to always disburse such loans at the time of cultivation of any given crop. He said this would go a long way to avert the temptation of misappropriation of the loan by the beneficiaries.