CBN appoints new ​head for ​Agric lending unit

The ​g​overnor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, on Wednesday approved the appointment of substantive Managing Director and Executive Director (Technical) for the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending.

The new appointees are Aliyu Abdulhameed and Babajide Arowosafe respectively.

Mr. Abdulhameed holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a Masters Degree in Public Administration with specialization in Public Policy.

The new Managing Director, who has over 22 years experience in Corporate Agribusiness as well as in the field of Agricultural Finance and Risk management, also holds an Executive Masters Certificate in Project Management from the Project Management College (UK).

He is currently an Executive Team Member of NIRSAL PLC, an initiative of the CBN, the Bankers Committee and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development.

“These appointments underscore the CBN’s determination to re-focus NIRSAL and help de-risk agricultural lending in Nigeria,” Mr. Emefiele said. “The Bank is confident that this will help in moving the country towards food sufficiency, job creation, and inclusive growth.”

On his part, Mr. Arowosafe holds a first degree in Agriculture and a Masters in Agricultural Policy and Administration. He has wide-ranging experience in agriculture and micro-enterprises having worked in these fields for both the World Bank and the United Nations.

He was the Commissioner for Agriculture & Natural Resources in Ekiti State.

In addition to its many other functions, NIRSAL has the responsibility to administer a risk sharing fund designed to identify, redefine, measure, re-price and evolve strategies to de-risk and catalyse lending to the Nigerian agriculture value chain.

Incorporated as a public limited liability company and licensed as a non-bank financial institution, NIRSAL has the primary mandate of facilitating the flow of credit to agribusiness value chain players and collaborating with stakeholders to fix broken agricultural value chains in Nigeria.

The company promotes economic development by acting as a catalyst for credit flows to agricultural value chains by systematically addressing key failures in agribusiness supply chains.

Since its inception in 2012, about 454 projects valued ₦61.161 billion have been guaranteed by NIRSAL, while about ₦753.36 million was paid as interest rebate to borrowers who repaid promptly to encourage good repayment behaviour

By the end of Year 2014, NIRSAL trained 27,142 farmers across the country.

Source: Premium Times