The Nigerian agricultural sector will receive N84 billion boost with credit line created by Ecobank Nigeria as lending scheme for agri-businesses in Nigeria to access in order to increase their productivity.
According to Ecobank, the scheme was created in line with the federal government’s real sector finance policy and will have significant impact on the sector within its four-year life time.
The Country Manager, Agriculture and Export Finance, Ecobank Nigeria, Abel Ajala, disclosed this, adding that the bank was in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bank of Industry (BoI) on this scheme.
Ajala said, ‘‘apart from the bank’s direct lending to agriculture sector, Ecobank has supported many stakeholders in the sector to obtain BoI’s loans and various other CBN-supported facilities for agriculture such as Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS), Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing for Agriculture (NIRSAL) at single digit interest rate’’.
According to him, Ecobank also plans to grow the BoI/ CBN funding portfolio in the bank significantly in the next four years.