Bua Supports 2,000 Farmers With N600m Loan

• Bua Supports 2,000 Farmers With N600m Loan

BUA Group of Companies has supported 2,000 farmers with N600m loan to boost rice production in Kano State.

Group Executive Director of the company, Alhaji Kabiru Rabiu, who made the disclosure while distributing tools to the farmers at Kura Local Government Area of the state, said that the company ventured into the project in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s agenda of diversifying into agriculture as an alternative to oil.

Rabiu explained that the company had disbursed N288, 000 interest-free loans to each of the 2,000 farmers in Kano in the first phase of the scheme, while the pilot project targets 50,000 rice farmers over the next four years.

He said, “Kano is by far one of the potential areas to grow rice. We are happy and excited and very positive. We believe and are sure that it will lead to a very successful partnership for BUA and the farmers.

“Our target, however, is for Kano to have over 500,000 rice farmers just as about 42,000 of them have already registered with Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria.

“So, what we are doing now is just a pilot project, with only 2,000 farmers to see where it goes. We want to double it to at least 50,000 farmers and if we are able to support and produce at least five tons per hectare and if we are able to do it twice, in Kano alone, you can get up to one million metric tons of rice.”

He pointed out that BUA was not using the anchor-borrower scheme its capital to take kick-start the project as a result of several issues and also for the fact that agriculture is time bound.