Minister passes crucial message to farmers over bank loans

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- Audu Ogbeh, minister of agriculture, has called on farmers to ensure they repay their loans

- Ogbeh pointed out that banks are not charity organizations

- He said the government intends to move agricultural credit to the most vulnerable segments of the population

The minister of agriculture and rural development, Audu Ogbeh, has urged farmers in the country to ensure they repay the loans gotten from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Deposit money banks had previously provided funds to farmers at 25 percent to 30 percent interest rate, before the apex bank announced a new agricultural lending rate of nine percent, Punch reports.

NAIJ.com gathers that Ogbeh also disclosed that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would partner the CBN, banks and farmers’ cooperatives to ensure that Nigerian farmers comply with the conditions put in place to access loans at the current rate.

He said: “We want to urge borrowers, especially farmers and industrialists, to ensure that whatever they borrow, they repay because banks are not charity organisations.

“We in the FMARD will join hands with the banks and the CBN to play a major role in making sure that whatever farmers borrow, they repay.

“This is especially as we intend to use the cooperatives to move agricultural credit to the most vulnerable segments of our population, mainly the women and the youths.

“We believe that under these conditions, our youths, women, big and small-scale farmers can now have access to credit to fulfill their dream and drive Nigeria towards self-sufficiency in food production.”

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that the federal government plans to procure 10,000 tractors from the US-based John Deere Agriculture and Farming Equipment Company within the next five years.

Audu Ogbeh, the minister of agriculture and rural development, disclosed this at a meeting with a management team from Namel and John Deere International Agriculture Equipment Company in Abuja.

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