Ecobank Nigeria extends agri loan to over 70,000 farmers

Reiterating its commitment to the farming sector, Ecobank Nigeria is supporting more than 70,000 farmers with special loans to enhance their capacity and yields during this planting season.

This is one of the bank’s initiatives to support entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector and is in support of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers programmes for the 2020 wet season with the Maize Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (MAGPAMAN).

“The initiative spreads across the 36 states and is one of the several concerted efforts on the part of the bank to support the government to create an ecosystem that gives smallholder farmers access to funding and the required support to increase food production in the country,” Mojisola Oguntoyinbo, Agribusiness Head, Ecobank Nigeria, said.

She added that the scheme has been designed to connect small-scale farmers with processors and off-takers within the agriculture value chain.

“We are creating opportunities in the agriculture sector that will help many smallholder farmers expand their business and become worthy employers of labour by adopting modern farming techniques for the betterment of our economy,” she stated.

“We are in strategic partnership with NIRSAL and some other developmental institutions to achieve our purpose.  We are also partnering the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in all its intervention schemes and programmes aimed at developing the sector. Our relationships are generating positive activities across the entire agri value chain,” she said.

It may be mentioned here that Ecobank has been actively leveraging entrepreneurship as a strategy to deal with issues like poverty and rising unemployment by creating relevant platforms.

One of such platforms is the Ecobank Xpress Point, which enables agents to carry out financial transactions on behalf of the bank and earn commission on the processing of transactions.