The federal government of Nigeria has disclosed its plan to boost mechanized farming, food security and job creation across various agricultural value chains with a $1.2 billion loan under the Green Imperative.
At a press conference in Abuja, Andrew Kwasari, senior special assistant to the president on agriculture, noted that the Green Imperative is an agricultural bilateral project between Nigeria and the government of Brazil.
Kwasari explained that the project has been in the making for some time now and that the government is now ready for its launch.
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“The green imperative will address two twin issues with agricultural modernization in Nigeria; provide mechanization, and provide agro property and these two works hand in hand through what we call service centres,” Kwasari articulated.
“These service centres will be created in each local government across the country to compliment and support the primary production through mechanization and value addition through agro properties,” he added.
According to the official, the most important thing about the project is that it will be driven by the private sector, with all its service centers operated by private entrepreneurs responsible for servicing the loan.
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“These entrepreneurs will be given a loan at domestic level so what comes to our local entrepreneur is Naira denominated loan with a monthly policy the draft of which has been finalized by the Central Bank and participating financial institution that will allow our entrepreneurs take up this loan and utilize it and pay back effectively.
“Subsequently then, the loan would be structured with a monetary policy from Central Bank which has been developed jointly; Central Bank, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Agriculture to allows the unlending of this loan to entrepreneurs,” Kwasari said.
