Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, NIRSAL, has sealed a $200 million deal with the World Bank for the development of agribusiness in Nigeria.
The Memorandum of Agreement and Action, MoA, was signed on the Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support, APPEALS, project.
The spokesman of NIRSAL, Ms. Anne Ihugba, stated in Abuja, Sunday, that under the project development objective of APPEALS, NIRSAL would bring its Tools, Techniques, Methodologies and strategic Partnerships, TTMPs, to bear on its Mapping to Markets-M2M
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, NIRSAL, has sealed a $200 million deal with the World Bank for the development of agribusiness in Nigeria.
The Memorandum of Agreement and Action, MoA, was signed on the Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support, APPEALS, project.
The spokesman of NIRSAL, Ms. Anne Ihugba, disclosed in Abuja, yesterday, that under the project development objective of APPEALS, NIRSAL would bring its Tools, Techniques, Methodologies and strategic Partnerships, TTMPs, to bear on its Mapping to Markets, M2M, strategy on the new deal.
It would implemented under “the shared aim of enhancing agricultural productivity of small and medium scale farmers and improvement of value addition along the cassava, cashew, rice, poultry, aquaculture, cocoa, wheat, tomato, maize, ginger and dairy value chains in a sustainable manner.
“The project, which is to be deployed in Cross River, Enugu, Lagos, Kogi, Kaduna, and Kano states, targets 60,000 beneficiaries, and 360,000 farm household members as indirect beneficiaries.
“It is anticipated that 35 per cent of direct beneficiaries (or 21,000 individuals) will be women. Additionally, the project has a dedicated sub-component to benefit women and youth that will allow them develop agribusinesses that are expected to create jobs and improve their livelihoods.”
Ms. Ihugba quoted the Managing Director of NIRSAL, Mr. Aliyu Abdulhameed, as assuring APPEALS that, in NIRSAL, they had found a trustworthy, reliable, and capable partner that shared the project’s development objective of enhancing the agricultural productivity of small and medium scale farmers and improving value addition along priority value chains in participating states.
He said NIRSAL would “deploy its technologies towards the formation of Agro-Geo-Co-operatives for selected commodity value chains through geo-spatial mapping, soil suitability tests, BVN enrolment for farmers in addition to the creation of Virtual Asset Titles, (VATs, establishment of field governance structures, and training of farmers on good agronomic practices, team dynamics and social engineering.”
NIRSAL will also link producers to relevant consumer, industrial and export markets through value chain round-tables, business deal facilitation meetings, and legally binding trade documentation. Abdulhameed added that NIRSAL will work with the state teams to structure agribusiness projects patterned after agreed sustainable models for APPEALS’ financing, while deploying NIRSAL’s partnerships and models for technology demonstration and adoption.
To protect primary producers under the project from losses due to pest, diseases, adverse weather conditions and general drops in expected yields, NIRSAL would deploy its Area Yield Index Insurance product.
Furthermore, Abdulhameed pointed out that to ensure business sustainability, NIRSAL would extend its technical advice to the APPEALS Project with, a view to instilling business discipline, adoption of a mandatory savings culture and reinvestment of profits for sustainability and expansion in the beneficiaries.
The National Project Coordinator of APPEALS Project and Director of Agriculture, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), Dr Amin Babandi, also expressed excitement at what he described as a “turning point” in the project’s life cycle.
He said: “Through this agreement, I am confident that APPEALS will achieve its set targets of impacting at least 60,000 and 360,000 direct and indirect beneficiaries respectively.”
