The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has said it will provide up to 75 per cent credit risk guarantee to commercial banks and investors for the scale-up phase of its partnership programme with National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI).
The partnership programme is aimed at fixing the agricultural mechanization value chain in Nigeria.
NIRSAL’s managing director, Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed made the statement at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between NIRSAL and NASENI recently, according to statement that was issued by NIRSAL yesterday.
Abdulhameed said NIRSAL will also facilitate capital market opportunities across the agricultural mechanisation value chain to support the scale-up and commercialisation phase of the programme; provide project monitoring and remediation services to NASENI for the schemes and projects arising from the collaboration; and provide technical assistance, capacity building and advisory services to NASENI and relevant stakeholders for the programme.
“NIRSAL Plc will rely on NASENI to create innovative agricultural, technological and engineering solutions that are bespoke to various needs for optimised production across Agricultural Value Chains,” the NIRSAL MD said.
The new partnership is expected to go a long way in maximising the agricultural potentials of the country, thereby contributing to the achievement of food security, inclusive economic growth, diversification, and employment generation.
The executive vice chairman for NASENI, Prof Haruna Faeng, said the partnership will enhance accessibility, affordability, reliability and sustainability of the utilisation of agricultural machinery and equipment with the introduction of modern irrigation methods across the agricultural value chain in Nigeria.
Apart from that, he said it will guarantee economic empowerment, technical capacity building and job creation opportunities for approximately 10, 000 direct jobs and 100, 000 indirect jobs and over one million jobs multiplied across the entire agricultural value chain.
According to him, the programme will create a commercially viable platform involving various stakeholders anchored on Public Private Partnerships across the agricultural mechanisation value chain in Nigeria.
Prof Faeng said NASENI has intervened in several sectors of the economy, which has led to successful domestication of technologies which erstwhile were believed to be impossible in Nigeria.
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