Nigeria’s Agriculture Sector Boosted with N1.3bn Grant
Abuja, Nigeria | March 01, 2008 by
The US government has provided a grant of N1.3 billion to develop Nigeria’s agricultural sector. The loan is part of the partnership between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bank PHB and Skye Bank. The partnership is being implemented under the Development Credit Authority (DCA) programme.
The programme allows the U.S government, through USAID, to issue partial loan guarantees to pursue developmental goals.
U.S Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders said at the inauguration of the partnership that the grant would be made available in the form of credit to small and medium enterprises (SMES) in the country. “The partnership targets enterprises that add value throughout the agricultural community business cycle.”
“It will further stimulate the economic growth in the communities where these enterprises do business as well as the broader agricultural sector,” Sanders said. She said that the partnership would also complement government’s efforts to enhance the sector by increasing financial access to farmers and agricultural commodity processors.
“Our partnership with these banks also complements government’s efforts to promote enterprise development through its National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS),” the envoy said.
Also, the USAID/NIGERIA Mission Director, Ms Sharon Cromer said that USAID is supporting agricultural commodity value as part of its poverty alleviation strategies.
She urged farmers and entrepreneurs to take advantage of the guarantee programmes and access the facilities.
The leadership of both banks committed themselves to ensuring the successful implementation of the partnership project.
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8:14 pm on January 26th, 2009
How does the common man whose only desire is to have access to say $5000, go about accessing the loan given the fact that he has no collateral and may not be able to meet all the conditions set by the banks. All he wants is to earn an honest living, but sadly he never gets the funds to start up. Truth is these funds, whether grants or loans never get to the intended recipients.My suggestion is that these monies should be accessed directly at USAID,and intending recipients should be screened and evaluated by USAID. I will gladly submit myself to this because i am interested in such loans to start up a dairy farm and support my family. There are millions like me who are not even literate enough to write this kind of letter, and are dying daily under the cruel pangs of pandemic poverty. Please so me the way to go and i will show others,
Thanks,
Ronnie.
12:36 pm on February 11th, 2009
Yes, I think you have the point. I really wish somebody in D-8 can point us to the right direction for getting these loan for our small business.
5:51 pm on November 24th, 2009
I wish to advice,that the loan or the grant should be disburse through USAID.I am oil palm tree farmer.I have eight hecter of land in jesse via sapele,delta state.kindly educate me on how to access the grant/loan.The problem we have in Nigeria is that, loan/grant does not get to the actual farmer,it end up in the pocket of bigmen in town and city.
10:44 pm on December 30th, 2009
This is a noble gesture from a friendly nation. However, as good as this gesture is, it hardly has much impact on average farmer like myself who work to better self and by extension feed the nation.
I wish the USAID will go a little further to have an input in the conditions that will guide the disbursement of this grant to ensure that it has meaningful impact on genuine farmers
Also, the parties involved should be aware of the farmers who are interested in only interest free loan/grant (however,services charges be incorporated).
I belief there are thousands of other serious minded farmers like myself who are not interested in interest base loan/grant as a matter of policy but who are ready to go on partnership agreement.
I have palm , honey, banana and cassava farms running into hundreds of acres and cassavs processing plant in Iseyin,Oyo State.
I know any opportunity to make gesture as this available to people of like effort as myself will go along way in making the target for the grant achievable.
11:41 pm on February 13th, 2010
pls.kindly send to me me any information or sources to the ascertainment of my project regarding credit grant to agricultural sector.