The National Apex of Nigerian Farmers Cooperative Societies (NANFACOS) has called on the Federal Government to support the group to access credit facilities, land and vehicles to optimize its operations in order to assist the government in stimulating the gains of agriculture in the country.
The group urged the Federal government to persuade each state to make a provision of at least 1,000 hectares of land for agricultural activities.
National President of the group, Nwogwugwu Uzoma, who made the call at a press briefing in Abuja said the cooperative was given official recognition via its registration by the Federal Department of Cooperatives of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2019 in accordance with the Nigeria Cooperative Societies Act.
He said NANFACOS is established to complement the efforts of the government in the agricultural sector, particularly in commodity value chains.
Uzoma added that the cooperative, which is made up of 127,000 registered farmers with a conglomerate of over 68 million individual practising cooperative farmers across the country, will erase the barriers and provide food for every Nigerian with the collaboration of relevant stakeholders.
He noted that the mission of the cooperative is to empower its farmers by accessing loans for purchase of agricultural inputs and other materials.
He said NANFACOS had come on board to work towards getting agricultural funding and materials from the government to the real farmers.
“It is a well known fact that today most of the agricultural funding and materials from government most times get portfolio farmers.
‘’It is also a fact that development of any nation must be private sector driven, like using cooperatives which calls for a need for business expansion’’, he added.
He however said NANFACOS has come to create a difference between cooperative farmers and ordinary farmers in Nigeria, as well as have a good bookkeeping program to help determine the cost of production and product sales.
Furthermore, he said the cooperative had been able to visit funding agencies like ministries, parastatals, banks and non-governmental organisations to negotiate for the funding of agribusiness.
‘’We have visited ministries, agencies and parastatals to include, federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Federal Ministries of Special Duties and Intergovernmental affairs, central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of nigeria (SMEDAN), Nigeria Incentive_Based, Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Bank of Agriculture (BOA) among others’’, he said.
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