The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc) has facilitated the flow of over ₦73 billion into Nigeria’s Agro Processing industry from various sources.
The sources include deposit money banks, development financiers, private equity investment firms and other financial institutions.
The support is part of its mandate of creating a stronger linkage between segments of Nigeria’s Agricultural Value Chain (AVC) and subsequent AVC-linkage to commercial bank finance,
NIRSAL’s support to agro-processors that operate within the midstream segment of the AVC creates a profit-driven ecosystem in which farmers in the upstream AVC segment have a reliable market in the form of Agro Processors who offtake farmers’ produce, add value and satisfy consumer demand in the downstream AVC segment
NIRSAL Plc said in Abuja, yesterday, that the support comes at a time in which developing economies are increasingly shifting from only producing raw materials to both production and value addition for increased economic activity, bolstering foreign exchange earnings and widespread social development.
The Managing Director/CEO of NIRSAL Plc., Aliyu Abdulhameed, disclosed that to date, NIRSAL Plc has paid out over ₦1.64 billion, thereby reducing the effective interest rate for borrowers with a good credit history.
He revealed that to date, over 4,250 bank officers have been trained on NIRSAL CRG guidelines and efficient Agric lending, resulting in a better understanding of the two, an improvement of banks’ disposition towards Agric lending and an increase in bank lending.
Specifically, NIRSAL Plc’s finance facilitation efforts have generated an additional $2.5 billion worth of economic activity through agricultural products/outputs and other value chain economic activities, created 360,000 direct jobs and positively impacted the lives of 1.8 million Nigerians.
The NIRSAL boss hinted that as a result of the success of the firm’s risk-sharing model, commercial banks have pledged a combined US$500 million to fund agriculture and agribusiness.
Be also stated that NIRSAL Plc has been approached by other African countries to provide support for the establishment and implementation of Risk Sharing facility models in their respective jurisdictions.
The NIRSAL chief listed other beneficiaries of NIRSAL Plc finance-facilitation to include pre-upstream, upstream and downstream AVC operators involved in inputs production and supply, mechanization service provision, primary production and logistics.
This feat, he said, which has made a notable contribution to the Federal Government’s Agric promotion drive, was achieved through NIRSAL’s effective deployment of its Credit Risk Guarantee (CRG) instrument.
