183,538 rural farmers accessed N75bn LAPO agric fund in 7 years, says CEO

Chief Executive Officer of Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO) Group, Godwin Ehigiamusoe has said that under the LAPO Rural Development Initiative (LARDI), N75.4 billion was discussed to 183,538 rural farmers.

He said LAPO has been very active in supporting the development of the rural economy with a focus on micro and small-scale agricultural enterprises across the country.

Speaking at the 29th LAPO Annual Development Forum held in Abuja, Ehigiamusoe said this year’s theme “Financing Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria: Issues and way forward” focuses on examining key issues in the development of the rural economy with emphasis on agricultural financing.

He further stated that financial institutions in the LAPO eco-system have over the years made significant contributions to rural agricultural financing and development in Nigeria with substantial impact.

“The LAPO Rural Development Initiative (LARDI) disbursed N75.4 billion to 183,538 clients, who are predominantly rural farmers between 2015 and July 2022.

“The LAPO Microfinance Bank is an active participant in the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“Between January 2012 and December 2021, the microfinance Bank disbursed over N35 billion to small-scale farmers. The bank already disbursed the sum of N4.1 billion to small-scale farmers in the current financial year,” he said.

On his part, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar
disclosed that it has approved new incentives for investors in the country’s agricultural sector.

The Minister who was represented by a Director at the Ministry said the new set of incentives was targeted at improving high-level private sector participation in Nigeria’s food production and processing industry.

Abubakar said LAPO Microfinance Bank is an active participant in the credit guarantee scheme of the CBN. LAPO is a financial institution which has a focus on micro and small-scale agricultural enterprises across the country.

He said the Federal Government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has repeatedly harped on the imperatives of improving the country’s agricultural produce and turning agriculture into big agribusiness.

“No doubt, the ministry is making efforts across the length and breadth of the country in ensuring sustainable food security and agribusiness as its core mandate,” he added.

The Director General of Nigeria Agribusiness Group, Dr Manzo Maigari said Nigeria’s competitiveness is in agriculture.

He said with 84 million hectares of arable land, 279 billion cubic metres of fresh water, and over 100 million young people, Nigeria cannot go wrong if we focus on agriculture.

“Our reality is that we should be ruling Africa once it is the issue of food production, however, our potential in agriculture continues the elude us.

“We have a food import bill of over $15 billion annually, land utilisation is about 40 per cent out of which only 10 per cent is effectively utilised, irrigation is at under 10 per cent, mechanisation is one of the lowest in the world, the post-harvest loss is at 40 per cent with a further 20 per cent loss in transit before it gets to the consumer,” he noted.

He commended LAPO Microfinance Bank for offering stakeholders an opportunity to x-ray, to galvanise their voices so that they can form a stronger voice and provide an impetus that will make the most important stakeholder in the room or around (government) act.

“We all understand what the issues, are, Agriculture remains the riskiest business in Nigeria and the reason is that we have failed to standardise practices, there is no regulation, and issues around certification all serve to make agriculture a lot riskier.

“The financial institutions do not understand how to qualify risk in agribusiness and once they can’t quality risk they naturally will classify agribusinesses as black holes and no serious investor will put money there,” Maigari added.

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