Zowasel, a sustainable commodity marketplace dedicated to developing the country’s supply chain, people, and the planet and VBank, a digital bank in Nigeria have partnered to support farmers struggling to get adequate working capital.
The partnership also aims to provide access to instant and affordable credit for agribusinesses and provides huge opportunities for a value-added relationship through referrals, due diligence, utilization of existing transactional records, and physical or behavioural characteristics to boost loan approvals and reduce the incidence of non-performing loans that exist today.
Jerry Oche, Founder and CEO of Zowasel said for farmers, the toughest row to hoe is securing a loan against their crops.
He said farmers need working capital to take stuff out of the ground to grow their agribusinesses.
“Our partnership with VBank is to make cash flow just a click away for qualified customers.
“The marketplace problem is solving what a loan offers. The mechanics are only built around the platform taking actual ownership of the commodities that it finances,” he said.
He added that Zowasel is not a lender; and does not have a lending license.
“In Nigeria and across Africa, commercial banks are not able to lend against crops and farmlands assets.
“They can’t and haven’t been able to provide financing to the most valuable asset, which is the crop itself. The Zowasel platform simply enables crops to be a financeable asset to crop sellers who trade on its platform to be financed by the digital bank.
He added that Zowasel makes payments to crop sellers after every successful commodity delivery to buyers on its marketplace platform.
“The crop seller ships the commodity to buyers’ preferred locations and the buyer checks for both quality and quantity, then uses the Zowasel platform to transmit the fact that they’ve confirmed, received and checked all parameters before payments are released to crop sellers.
“These processes slow down some crop sellers with little or no working capital to sell on the Zowasel platform, while others have huge potential to increase their capacity but lack access to the required trade financing to grow their agribusiness.
Speaking further he said Zowasel and Vbank, powered by VFD Microfinance Bank, are seeking to explore these opportunities to support current and prospective crop sellers on the Zowasel Marketplace struggling with working capital to grow their agribusinesses.
He said VBank would provide access to working capital and trade financing to qualified current and prospective crop sellers on the Zowasel platform.
“Crop sellers who meet the lending requirements of the digital bank are required to provide a signed crop seller agreement with Zowasel as part of the loan application for consideration,” he added.
Managing Director of VBank, Gbenga Omolokun, said: “Zowasel’s offerings perfectly align with our drive for financial inclusion. Their service addresses a significant pain point in the agricultural value chains.
“It’s an interesting opportunity to provide an additional layer of agribusiness financing which traditional banks can’t provide.
“VBank will undoubtedly provide access to working capital loans to qualified crop sellers on the Zowasel platform to foster economic development across Nigeria and eliminate disruptive barriers to trade financing.”
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The PDP spokesman recalled how the opposition party had on various occasions alerted that the APC government had ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, “many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.”
He further stated: “From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.
“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.
According to Ologunagba, about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists between 2020 and 2022 “as the criminals continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention.”
“This is not politics; this is about humanity and leadership, which leadership sadly and unfortunately is missing in our country at this time,” he said.
The PDP added that it is appalled by “the lame response by the apparently helpless, clueless and deflated Buhari Presidency, wherein it told an agonizing nation that President Buhari “has done all and even more than what was expected of him as Commander in Chief by way of morale, material and equipment support to the military…”
“This is a direct admission of incapacity and failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. At such a time, in other climes, the President directly leads the charge and takes drastic measures to rescue and protect his citizens.
“In time of adversity, the President transmutes into Consoler-in-Chief to give hope and succour to the citizens. Painfully, Nigeria does not have a President who cares and can stand as Consoler-in-Chief to the citizens.
“It has now become very imperative for Nigerians to take note and realize that the only solution to this unfortunate situation is to hold the APC government accountable. We must come together as a people, irrespective of our political, ethnic and religious affiliations to resist the fascist-leaning tendencies of the APC administration.
Ologunagba called for an urgent meeting of the National Council of State to advise on the way to go over the nation’s worsening insecurity.
“Our nation must not fall. The resilient Nigerian spirit and ‘can-do- attitude’ must be rekindled by all to prevail on the President to immediately and without further delay, accede to the demand by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians to convene a special session of the National Council of State to find a lasting solution since the President has, in his own admission, come to his wit’s end,” the PDP spokesman declared.
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