Expert warns on stringent loan conditions to farmers

A consultant to the Economic Community of West African states (ECOWAS) Farmers Association, Mr Kolapo Raji, has advise commercial banks who offer loan facilities to farmers to desist from attaching stringent contingents to the facility that makes it unrealistic or difficult to farmers to frustrate them from accessing the loans.

Raji gave the charge while speaking with hundreds of farmers from the association from all the 33 local government areas of Oyo state who gathered recently at the Trade Fair complex, Samonda area, Ibadan.

He also called on the state and federal governments to call on the banks to do more in the area of promotion of small scale business in Nigeria.

According to Raji, “I want to shout out loud to both the Federal and State government and Central bank, that if Nigeria, must be great again, the attitude of the commercial banks must be checked.

“A situation where genuine investors’ morale are frustrated through stringent conditionalities by the bank is unacceptable and must be stopped. There is no nation that can attain greatness without promoting small scale business. A situation jettison its primary function of lending money to customers and start chasing deposit, should be discouraged. In essence, agro-processing investors should be encouraged through liberal conditions to access loan and even be given incentives to grow.”

In another development, the Chief coordinator ECOWAS Human Right Farmers, Akin Agunbiade called on President Muhammadu Buhari that it is only him that can stop the Fulani, Bororo/farmers imbroglio if agriculture will ever become an alternative income to oil in Nigeria.

Agunbiade stated that the relationship between farmers and the Fulani herdsmen has been a gory tale along the farming coast where the herdsmen operate, adding that “thousands of innocent Nigerians has been killed, cash and food crops destroyed, villages and communities sacked.”

“Bororo herdsmen come from somewhere to invade or pass through farmland cultivated with bank loan. That is not right. All farmers from grass root to urban area must come together with formidable forces to face the challenges. Yes, we must confront the situation. It is now all over the country from North to South, went to East, and it is only our President, Muhammadu Buhari that can stop this barbaric acts. This time around, silence is not golden.”