By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi-
A group under the aegis of Northern Youth Consultative initiative (NYCI), has stated that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s great contributions to agricultural development in the country through its various support programmes made the sector one of the biggest earners after oil.
The Convener, NYCI, Amb Bappare Mohammed who stated this while speaking with a cross section of Journalists on Sunday noted that the synergy between the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele and MD/CEO NIRSAL Microfinance Bank, Alh Aliyu Abdulhameed is really turning round the agricultural sector positively.
He said that no country can move forward to the next stage of development without boosting Agriculture, stressing that both humans and animals survive on its produce.
He said: “Indeed, the CBN has tried a lot through NIRSAL by encouraging and supporting farmers in many ways” .
According to him, NIRSAL was established to catalyse the flow of finance and investment to fixed agricultural value chains across Nigeria pointing out that this has assisted farmers in both raining and dry season farming as they were given loans and provided with farming materials through NIRSAL.
He added that NIRSAL, which has the mandate to provide monitoring and supervision of agricultural projects also conducts continuous project monitoring and evaluation to remediate against possible risks, ensure good agricultural practices are adhered to while inputs are properly utilised.
“It is a great achievement to the MD/CEO NIRSAL, Aliyu Abdulhameed in carrying out his duties actively and diligently. We appreciate the CBN Governor for Giving tremendous support to NIRSAL. In line with its mandate to achieve food security, NIRSAL is supporting the production of various crops nationwide,” he stated.
Mohammed said that NIRSAL has recorded considerable success nationwide during the harvest stage of the 2020 wet season farming as it deployed round-the-clock project monitoring to ensure projected yields are realized, paving the way for loans repayment, additional financing and an improved livelihood.
According to him, In line with its mandate to fix broken agricultural value chains and increase the flow of finance into the sector, NIRSAL is championing advocacy for the operationalization of a Secured Agricultural Commodity Transport & Storage Corridor (SATS-C).
Also, NIRSAL has remained an avenue for youth empowerment and socio-economic development for state governments nationwide as there are many programs and policies designed to help in boosting Agricultural development and farmers in Nigeria through NIRSAL and CBN.
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