The Federal Government is set to recapitalise the Bank of Agriculture before March in order to boost food security.
Senator Abubakar Kyari, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, while speaking during a briefing at the State House in Abuja yesterday, said the bank, which has branches in 109 senatorial districts, will be positioned to provide smallholder farmers with capital.
Kyari noted reliance on government budgets alone is insufficient to support agriculture.
The ministry is engaging development partners, including the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), to expand funding opportunities.
Kyari said: “Within the first quarter of this year, you will see a report that will outline the reorganization and the recapitalization of the Bank of Agriculture”.
“BoA has branches in all the 109 senatorial districts and can reach out easily to those farmers.
“Smallholder farmer lacks capital. So we have written to some banks.
“We are also reorganising BoA to support what the government is doing in the sense of public financing in the budgets and what have you.
“Budget alone cannot support agriculture. We’re happy with development partners, including IFAD, a united nation Rome-based organisation.”
The minister also added that 85 containers of equipment have already arrived, with over 200 tractors been delivered so far and the overall plan includes procuring 2,000 tractors with 9,000 implements, such as ploughs, harrows, seeders, and boom sprayers.
According to the Minister, 10 large combined harvesters capable of covering 10 hectares per day and 12 mobile service vehicles are part of the package.
The minister added: “We also have 9000 sets of spare parts that will come with this particular procurement.”
