Ecobank Nigeria Extends Agric Loan to 70,000 Farmers

Ecobank Nigeria says it remains committed to the nation’s agricultural sector, following which it is supporting over 70,000 farmers with special loans to increase their capacity and yields during this planting season.

This, the bank said, is one of its initiatives to promote entrepreneurship in the sector and support the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers programmes for the 2020 wet season with the Maize Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (MAGPAMAN).

Head, Agribusiness, Ecobank Nigeria, Mojisola Oguntoyinbo, who announced this in Lagos while responding to media enquiries on the participation of the bank in the CBN scheme, said the initiative spreads across the 36 states of the country.

The initiative, she noted further, is one of several concerted efforts through which the bank is supporting government to create an ecosystem that gives small holder farmers access to funding and the required support to increase food production in the country.

The scheme, she continued, is designed to connect small holder farmers with processors and off takers within the agriculture value chain.

“We are creating opportunities in the Agric sector that will help many small holder farmers expand their business and become worthy employers of labour by adopting modern farming techniques for the betterment of our economy. We are in strategic partnership with NIRSAL and some other developmental institutions to achieve our purpose.”

Ecobank Nigeria, she stressed, is partnering the CBN “in all its intervention schemes and programmes aimed at developing the sector. Our relationships are generating positive activities across the entire Agric value chain”.

This comes on the heels of the bank’s widely acclaimed Agri-business summit with key stakeholders, held earlier in the year.

Ecobank said in the statement that it has been actively leveraging entrepreneurship as a strategy to tackle poverty and growing unemployment, through the creation of relevant platforms.

One such platform, it noted further, is the Ecobank Xpress Point, the bank’s Agency Banking proposition which enables agents to carry out financial transactions on behalf of the bank, earning a commission on transactions processed. Thousands of Nigerians have taken advantage of this opportunity to become Xpress Point agents and have, in turn, employed several others, thereby improving financial inclusion and creating employment opportunities. Xpress Points are in various neighbourhoods across the country and are well-positioned to facilitate financial transactions in the communities which they serve.

https://investdata.com.ng/ecobank-nigeria-extends-agric-loan-to-70000-farmers/