A single-digit interest loan facility of N1 billion has been provided by the Oyo State Agricultural Credit Corporation (OSACC) to ensure more access at reasonable interest rates for farmers to expand their farming businesses and attract potential investors into the value chain.
The Executive Chairman, OSACC, Alh. Taofeek Akeugbagold, while speaking during a media briefing at the Ministry of Information and Civic Orientation Film Theatre in Ibadan, disclosed that the loan facility will ensure food security and cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidies.
Akeugbagold noted that the state government engaged the service of microfinance banks to disburse and recoup the loan across the thirty-three (33) local government areas of the state to help smallholder farmers, who account for about 90% of the farmers’ population and are responsible for about 95% of the aggregate food and fiber production in the state.
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The chairman pointed out that the loan process, which is apolitical, will be disbursed to farmers who are duly registered with the state Ministry of Agriculture to bring more stability to the sector and provide an enabling environment for the development of Oyo State farms and agricultural businesses.
The General Manager of Agric Credit Corporation, Mr. Emmanuel Ogundiran, remarked that the state government has recapitalized the corporation and that the government has released some funds to fulfill one of the mandates of the corporation in financing the agric value chain completely.
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“The mode of giving out the loan is going to be exactly as enshrined in the loan conditions of the corporation. We have set rules for giving out loans, and for this program, we are making use of microfinance banks, which are governed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, regulations, and also regulated by the bank and financial institutions bodies’’.
