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Nigeriaâs Unity Bank Plc has said it will provide additional funding to no fewer than 120,000 smallholder maize farmers in Nigeria in the 2021 wet season farming in Nigeria.
Tomi Somefun, managing director/Chief Executive Officer, disclosed this while delivering a goodwill message at the unveiling of the first National Maize Pyramids and flag-off of wet season farming programmes held over the weekend in Katsina.
As a major stakeholder in the roll out of the CBNâs Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), Unity Bank Plc was invited to participate in the events marking the unveiling by the Maize Association of Nigeria, MAAN.
This was disclosed by Unity Bank CEO, Mrs Tomi Somefun in a statement on Friday, in Lagos.
She stated that the CBN funding during the wet season was part of the administration’s promise to farmers adding that the bank had been funding farmers through the scheme since 2019. Over 37,000 farmers received funding in 2019, while in 2020, the number of farmers rose to over 70,000.
“With agriculture contributing over 26% to Nigeria’s GDP and employing about 50% of Nigeria’s working population in the rural areas, the bank will continue to make strategic investments into the sector.
Investments are in line with the Federal Government’s quest to attain food sufficiency, diversify the economy away from oil, create jobs for the youth and reduce poverty,” she said.
Mr
Paul Ikonne, Executive Secretary, National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) said there was need to urgently address the insecurity challenges in the country in order to overcome challenge of food shortage. Ikonne noted that dialogue remained critical in addressing issues of insecurity and herders, adding that a peaceful dialogue between farmers and herders would prevent future clashes.
”I believe that the herders want their cattle to be healthy so they can sell and make profit. What this means is that they also want a conducive environment to do their business.
”So, NALDA is going to engage them and the communities; we will create an avenue where they can feed their cattle so that we all can live in peace,” he said.
Views: Visits 15 CBN The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has been commended for initiating the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, which has helped smallholder maize farmers in the country to attain quality production and sustainable life. The National President of Maize Association of Nigeria, Dr Bello Abubakar, gave the commendation at the inauguration of the first National Maize Pyramid unveiling programme in Abuja recently. He said that maize farmers in the country were currently producing enough to meet up the demand for maize in Nigeria. READ ALSOAuto crash claims 2 lives in Onitsha The president called on the government to sustain the ban on maize importation to further boost maize production and to encourage farmers in the country.