By Agency Reporter

Friday, 3 Dec 2010

The Bank of Agriculture said it had disbursed N38.7bn within the last nine years.

The Managing Director of the bank, Alhaji Mohammed Santuraki, disclosed this in Kaduna when a supervision team, comprising consultants and officials of the Federal Government and the Internatiobnal Fund for Agricultural Development, paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

Santuraki said that the loan was distributed through its 201 branches in the six geo-political zones of the country and that micro finance institutions received N9.5bn while the sector as a whole got 21.5bn.

The News Agency of Nigeria quoted him as saying that N3.9bn was disbursed for on-lending while N3.8bn went to special projects.

He said that, so far, the bank had recovered only N27.6bn while the balance of N17.3bn was still outstanding.

“The six geo-political zones differ rather widely in their loan repayment performances. Some have recorded repayment rates of above 83.7 per cent, while some have recorded rates as low as 62 per cent,’’ the managing director said.

He further said that the loan facilities were distributed across all strata of the agricultural production chain, ranging from food to tree crops, protein and value addition services such as processing.

Santuraki said that the bank had funded the establishment of 24 projects within the period under review.

A breakdown showed that hundreds of thousands of sub-projects were also established through the banks‘ assistance, he said.

They included 367,560 arable, 116,936 livestock, 2,860 fisheries, three horticulture, 53 piggery and 48,523 poultry, 15 tree crops, two tractor hiring and 24,946 artisanal sub-projects.

Earlier, the leader of the team, Dr. Segun Ogidan, told the BOA managing director that the delegation was charged with the mandate to monitor the implementation of the IFAD-assisted Rural Finance Institution–Building Programme in the 12 participating states in the country.

He commended the bank, a major partner in the RUFIN programme, for paying its counterpart funding and advised the bank to sign the MoU as required to fast-track the implementation of the programme.

Santuraki gave assurance that the bank would soon sign the MoU as it would fast-track its rural and agricultural development programme.

He said the new leadership would collaborate with IFAD and other stakeholders to enhance agricultural transformation in the country.

 

Source: Punch