The minister of State, Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, has said the federal government is planning to create N750 billion agricultural funds in the enhancement of agriculture development in the country.
He stated this at the annual poultry summit held yesterday in Lagos.
Lokpobiri said, the government will be coming out with the fund in order to finance different sector, saying this will go a long way in the progress of agriculture in the country.
“In addition to that, federal government is also talking with Islamic bank and they have approach us to provide about N494 billion ($2.5 million), which to be rooted through Bank of Agriculture and Commerce Banks and to be access in a single digit rate to finance different agriculture programme. We are also talking with Africa Development Bank for funding for agriculture sector,” he said.
He added that the government is very interested in boosting the agricultural sector, saying “the Ministry of Agric is trying to make credit not only accessible but available and affordable at a single digit.”
The Minister said, the present Commerce Bank’s interest rate is on a high side and businesses cannot survive with such interest rate, saying that already there exist some funding from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that even the poultry farmers can access at an affordable interest rate of nine per cent but the contention is that at nine per cent is still high for agric businesses.
Also, the president of Poultry Association of Nigeria Dr Ayoola Oduntan said that the contribution of Poultry to the Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (AGDP) and the Nigeria economy is great. This is a sub-sector that contributes over 25 per cent of the AGDP of the economy with an annual turnover of over N800 billion.
He lamented that the last 16 months have been the most challenging period for the Nigerian poultry industry with the outbreak of Avian Influenza which occurred in January 2015 and have been ravaging the industry since then.
Credit: Leadership Newspaper
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