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Tag: Farmers

  • CBN mobilises 140,848 tomato farmers for Anchor Borrowers Programme

    CBN mobilises 140,848 tomato farmers for Anchor Borrowers Programme

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has mobilised and validated 140,848 tomato farmers for the Anchor Borrowers Programme.

    The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele disclosed this at the Ground-Breaking ceremony of Tomato Jos at Kangimi community in Kaduna on Monday.

    Tomato Jos is an American owned company aimed to transform smallholder farmers from subsistence growers into commercial producers.

    The company has a 500 hectres of land with potential to cultivate tomato of 400 hectres and it is expected to begin production in 2021.

    Emefiele said the beneficial farmers were selected from

    various Tomato Farmers Associations across 25 States in the country.

    He explained that the farmers would be linked to proximal processors where applicable, or financed to produce fresh fruits for direct consumption, which

    constituted the largest use of tomato in the country.

    “We are also partnering with other big players in the tomato value chain like Dangote Tomato Processing Ltd, Sonia Foods, GB Foods (GBF), Vegefresh Company Ltd. and a host of others.

    “This is with a view to ensuring that Nigeria becomes self-sufficient  in tomato, and our Processing companies, functioning at full capacity and employıing millions of Nigerian youths.

    “My presence here today is a demonstration of CBN’S preparedness to partner with the private sector to facilitate the development of Nigeria’s agricultural sector through our various programmes and Schemes like Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS), Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP),.

    “Others like Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF), Agri-business/Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS) among others” he said.

    Emefiele commended the Management of Tomato Jos company for flagging off this processing plant which had the potential of creating employment for hundreds of Kaduna State indigenes and other Nigerians in general.

    He expressed hope that the Management of the company would remain focussed and not be compromised so as to ensure the sustainability of the project.

  • 8m farmers to benefit from 16,000 geo-clusters scheme -NIRSAL

    8m farmers to benefit from 16,000 geo-clusters scheme -NIRSAL

    The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) says eight million farmers will benefit from its 16,000 Geo-Clusters Scheme across the country.

    Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed, the Managing Director of NIRSAL made this known in his presentation at the 61st session of Greeners Hub B2B Nigeria in Abuja on Sunday.

    NIRSAL has mandate to redefine, measure, price and share agribusiness related credit risk and fix broken agricultural value chains.

    Other mandates are to build long term capacity and stimulate the flow of finance and investment into the agricultural value chains.

    Represented by Mr Opeoluwa Ogundipe, a Senior Manager, Agricultural value chain Finance and investment services in the organisation, Abdulhameed said the programme would bring farmers from the same ecological zones together.

    He explained that the scheme, incorporating farmers together as cooperatives, would cultivate valuable and various crops in four million hectres of land.

    “Nigeria is categorised into agro ecological zones where each zone will be identified with peculiar crops that grow in that particular area.

    “We are going a step forward to ensure farmers in the same geological zones come together and work together for the benefit of achieving mechanisation in farming,” he said.

    The managing director explained that industrial commodities like maize, soya, wheat, cassava and cotton would be cultivated as well as export crops such as Hibiscus, sesame, ginger and shea butter.

    He said the scheme would also ensure planting of consumer commodities like rice, potatoes, beans, fruits, vegetables and aquaculture as well as beef, dairy, hides and skin and poultry.

    He stated that sugarcane and cashew had recently been added to the crops in the scheme.

    Abdulhameed disclosed that NIRSAL’s intervention had so far given direct job to about 400,000 Nigerians.

    Dr Popoola Mustapha, the Convener of Greeners B2B Nigeria said the initiative which started in 2015 was to promote businesses across the country.

    Mustapha said the forum which had made people’s businesses to grow from zero to certain appreciable point was inline with evolution of new order in terms of smartness and ethics.

    He stated that the session usually give opportunity for old owners of businesses to do a peer review.

    He added that those whose businesses was between zero to four years would also have avenues to showcase theirs with a view to give them necessary advice. (NAN)