The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) brought an unprecedented boost to agricultural funding in excess of N145 billion in the country, in the last one year.
Speaking at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) towards the delivery of a Climate Risk Profiling Project in Nigeria, Managing Director of NIRSAL Mr. Aliyu Abdulhameed, disclosed that the funding was mobilized from various sources, including, the Central Bank of Nigeria, Deposit Money Banks and other investors.
His words, “Since inception to date, NIRSAL has made considerable progress: We have facilitated funding from commercial banks for agribusinesses across the value chain in the sum of US$375million.
“We have trained over 700,000 farmers on good agronomic practices and financial education, and provided high quality agricultural inputs and affordable finance to more than 500,000 smallholder farmers under 3 farming seasons from 2017 to 2018″.
“NIRSAL Plc, the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending is a US$500million Non-Bank Financial Institution and a wholly owned corporation of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It is designed to Redefine, Measure, Re-Price and Share agribusiness-related credit risk.
Mr. Abdulhameed disclosed that NIRSAL was targeting a $22 billion import substitution, by making Nigeria self-sufficient in the production of many agricultural products which were formerly imported.
On the new deal Mr. Abdulhameed said, “the Project is aimed at providing an overview of climate risk issues and vulnerabilities across agro-ecological zones in the country, as well as, indications of how climate change will potentially impact agricultural production, water resources, energy and human health.”