Mozambique delegation visits Abuja to understudy Nigeria’s agric-financing model

A delegation from Mozambique supported by the United Nations Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has visited Nigeria to understudy the country’s agricultural financing model.

The delegation which arrived in Nigeria on February 19 was led by Jaime Chissico, the national director for promotion of commercial agriculture at Mozambique’s ministry of agriculture.

The visit was facilitated by Steve Ogidan, chief executive officer (CEO) of Successory Nigeria Limited, who is a development finance expert and the lead consultant to FAO.

The delegation visited Abubakar Kure, chairman of NIRSAL Micro Finance Bank and Alwan Hassan, managing director of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA).

Kure encouraged the Mozambique delegation to learn from Nigeria’s government-backed agricultural financing.

He explained that NIRSAL MFB was set up as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with the mandate of providing cheap finances and entrenching financial inclusion.

“The bank is not really about profit, but if we make a profit, it is still okay. Agric, Small and Medium Enterprise Scheme (AGSMEIS) helps us target the agricultural value chain and other sectors to give SMEs loans and we give up to N10m as the maximum,” he said.

“We later reduced it to N3m to make sure it could cover the population.

Speaking on behalf of the Mozambique delegation, Chissico said Nigeria plays a leading role in Africa and has achieved great success in food production despite its over 200 million population.

“With the help and support of FAO Mozambique, we came here to learn how our agriculture in Mozambique can be financed,” Chissico said.

“We have heard about a lot of procedures and mechanisms that the government of Nigeria has in terms of supporting agriculture, especially financing agriculture.

“We do have the potential to increase the level of production of agriculture but we do not have the mechanism to finance agriculture.

“According to statistics, we have less than 2 per cent in terms of budget for lending basically to smallholder farmers. When you talk about the credit for agriculture, it normally goes to farmers of sugar, tobacco, cotton and cashews.”

Speaking with the delegation, Atiku Bagudu, minister of budget and economic planning, said it is important for Mozambique to adopt a financing scheme to grow its agricultural sector.