FG to Provide Over 2 Million Farmers Zero Interest Loan
As a measure to mitigate the effect of the global health pandemic, the federal government announced zero-interest financing to over 2 million farmers nationwide.
This statement was made on Tuesday at Abuja by the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the president on Agriculture, Mr. Andrew Kwaseri.
He said the project would run under Agric for Food and Jobs Plan (AFJP) which would last for 12 months with two million hectares of land to improve productivity.
The presidential aid said trained enumerators have been assigned the task of identifying farmers and farms which qualified as beneficiaries of the program.
He said this would allow proper registration and identification of the farmers and their farms resulting to a comprehensive database that will be used in accessing the financing facilities.
Mr. Andrew also said that the project is futuristic as it would ensure food security in the post-COVID-19 era and eliminate post-harvest loss, thereby, positioning the farmers as drivers of economic growth.
He said “This joint venture between Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), state governments and other relevant stakeholders including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is aimed at increasing locally grown food supply.
” It will simultaneously create employment opportunities in the agricultural sector,” he added.
The presidential aide pointed out that the priority crops and livestock targeted by the AFJP for local markets were rice, maize, sorghum, soybean and groundnut.
Others are cowpea, cassava, millet, livestock, horticulture, palm kernel and cotton, while sesame seeds, cocoa, hides and skin as well as horns and hoofs are targeted for export market
Mr Kwaseri confirmed that the Agricultural sector is important and cannot be neglect in the battle to reduce the negative impact of the global health pandemic in the country.