Farmers seek BoA recapitalisation

Farmers and feed millers have expressed their anticipation for the recapitalisation of the Bank of Agriculture (BoA), urging the financial institution to offer them a single interest rate loan in an effort to further reduce the prices of food items.

It would be recalled that the federal government hinted at plans to invest N1.5 trillion into the bank in an effort to ensure access to long-term financing for farmers and agribusinesses.

Speaking on behalf of feed millers under the auspices of Feed Industry Practitioners Association of Nigeria (FIPAN), the national president, Ayoola Oduntan during a press briefing acknowledged the federal government’s effort in reducing the prices of food items, emphasising the need to further crash the prices.

He stressed the need for BoA, after being fully recapitalised, to offer a single digit interest rate to farmers, describing interest rate exceeding 30 per cent as an untold hardship to them.

He said: “The Bank of Agriculture is being restructured and recapitalised now. We have been waiting for this for a very long time. In some countries, agriculture has nearly zero interest rate and sometimes negative interest rate, so this has been long awaited and by the time the bank of agriculture is fully recapitalised, funded and reorganised, we hope to work very closely with them.

“We intend to work very closely with the Bank of Agriculture to ensure that our farmers are able to access funds at single digit interest. It is very difficult to produce low price feeds at an interest rate exceeding 30 per cent. It is a very unusual phenomenon around the world.”