AfDB grants $1m to BOA, reels over N60bn debt

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he African Debt Management Bank (AfDB) has issued a one million dollar grant to the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) with the aim of restructuring and strengthening its response to emerging challenges.

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This was disclosed by Kabiru Adamu, the Chief Executive officer, BOA, during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) which held in Abuja on Thursday.

Adamu said the intervention by AfDB was appropriate as the new BOA executives had taken on a lot of liabilities due largely to the failure of farmers to repay loans granted them.

He noted that the bank is working on recovering the N60 billion owed it by farmers.

He said that the lifeline would restructure the bank making it more efficient thereby ensuring it carries out its mandate for the benefit of farmers and the nation.

“My team inherited a lot of liability from the previous management of BOA, a lot was done to clean their books and recover so many loans and the loan recovery exercise is still ongoing”.

“Most of the beneficiaries are not willing to pay back the loan because they are seeing it as a national cake, but the bank will make all efforts to recover all the money disbursed as loan to farmers”.

“The team has just finalised the 2016 outstanding accounts and work has commenced on the 2017 accounts, even at this a lot still needs to be done to ensure a clean book.” He said.

Adamu stated that the bank put much effort into intensifying its risk framework, thereby implementing adequate monitoring and constant evaluation in order to prevent diversion of funds.

“BOA officials are always with the farmers now unlike before to avoid diversion of funds and this will make farming a profitable venture for the farmers and they will repay the loan”.

“BOA is concerned in developing the new agenda that will ensure food security, job creation, replace the ageing farmers and make agriculture more attractive,” he said.

Adamu said reviving the bank would boost the nation’s economy, thereby aiding the provision of raw materials needed by the manufacturing sector.

“This will conserve foreign exchange on importation, reduce unemployment and create more lucrative jobs and curb the effect of rural-urban migration”.

“Considering the nations teaming population and unemployment, under the agriculture revolution more land will be cultivated as Nigeria has over 80 per cent arable land but unfortunately less than 40 per cent of the land is cultivated,” he said.

Adamu went further to say the BOA is into strategic collaborations with major stakeholders in the industry aimed at creating employment opportunities for youths as well as equip farmers for sustainable agricultural development.

He said the partnership included that with the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending to reinvigorate MSMEs, adding that it involves risk-sharing arrangements.

He added that the bank had also partnered the Development Bank of Nigeria to secure more funding for MSMEs to stimulate necessary growth in the Agricultural sector.

Adamu added that the BOA had signed an e-banking agreement with the SunTrust Bank using its existing 140 branches in the country to reach its farmer customers.

“The bank will also provide Mobile Money Service, Merchant and Settlement Accounts for e-transaction, deploy its innovative banking services and other complimentary e-banking services to simplify BOA services to its over one million farmers.”

He said that the latest of such partnerships was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with 30 business executives and officials from Germany on Tuesday.

On support to farmers this cropping season, Adamu said adequate funds and other facilities would be granted to over 2.5 million farmers.

He said already, data capturing and farm inspection for the participating farmers had been completed and the loan disbursement would commence soon.

Adamu added that input suppliers have since commenced the supply of inputs and certified seeds to farmers.

NAN reports that BOA, Nigeria’s foremost agricultural and rural development finance institution, was incorporated in 1972 as Nigerian Agricultural Bank before it transformed into the Bank of Agriculture Limited in October 2010.

It is wholly owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria with 40 per cent of its shares held by Central Bank of Nigeria and 60 per cent by the Federal Ministry of Finance Incorporated.

Naija247news
Naija247newshttps://www.naija247news.com/
Naija247news is an investigative news platform that tracks news on Nigerian Economy, Business, Politics, Financial and Africa and Global Economy.

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