NIRSAL Plc is calling on all smallholder farmers, farmer leaders and aggregators to key into its Agro Geo-Cooperative model created for the purpose of sustainable farm/field structuring and governance, to enable sustainable access to finance, quality inputs and structured markets through NIRSAL’s facilitation according to the publication on its website.
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc.), is a US$500million Non-Bank Financial Institution wholly-owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), created to redefine, dimension, measure, re-price and share agribusiness-related credit risks in Nigeria.
Smallholder farmers, particularly for Dry Season and Non-Seasonal Commodities are encouraged to take advantage of the NIRSAL AgroGeoCoop formation exercise which is currently structuring smallholder farmers for access to finance, trainings, markets and more.
The exercise aims at creating 16,000 Agro Geo-Cooperatives (ranging from 10 hectares to 20,001 hectares and above) on 4 million hectares of farmland and enrolling about 8 million farmers across Nigeria who are expected to produce about 12 million metric tonnes of Grain Product Equivalent (GPE) annually over the medium to long term.
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In line with this, Community Leaders, Individuals, Enterprises, Corporate Bodies, Graduates, N-POWER Beneficiaries, Active and Retired leaders and farmers in: The ADP programme, World Bank FADAMA Programme, USAID MARKETS Programme, IFAD Value Chain Development Programme, The World Bank Climate Adaptation and Business Support Programme, AfDB Agric Programmes, the DFID’s Propcom Maikarfi Programme, the SASSAKAWA Global 2000 Programme and others that meet NIRSAL PLC’s eligibility requirements and who are domiciled in or have access to their communities and farmers, are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity as a means of employment and a source of income generation through supporting the productive activities of their self-organized Agro Geo-Cooperatives.
Click here for the list of all the state heads and contact details
NIRSAL was established in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and Nigerian Bankers’ Committee in 2013, NIRSAL’s mandate is to stimulate the flow of affordable finance and investments into the agricultural sector by de-risking the agribusiness finance value chain, fixing agricultural value chains, building long-term capacity, and institutionalizing incentives for agricultural lending through its five (5) strategic pillars, namely: Risk Sharing, Insurance, Technical Assistance, Incentives and Rating.
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Written by;
Ifunanya Ikueze
