Farmers lament high interest on agric loans

Nigerian farmers including the Trade Network Initiative (TNI) farmers, under the aegis of the Federation of Agricultural Commodities of Nigeria (FACAN), have expressed worry over high interest rate charged in the Nigerian Incentive-based Risk Sharing for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) credit scheme.


According to them, small scale farmers may not be able to access the funds because of the double digit interest rate, adding that the operational guidelines put in place by NIRSAL was only good on paper, but not feasible in practice notwithstanding NIRSAL’s lofty objectives.

Speaking during a one-day stakeholder consultation on increasing small holder farmers’ access to credit recently, Chris Kaka, National Programme Coordinator of TNI, said: “No farmer given loan at a double digit interest rate would be able to make returns and go home happy.”

Kaka explained that to a great extent, NIRSAL facility has been able to mainstream gender into the scheme, as there is no need for women to present landed properties as collateral before accessing loans.

He said farm inputs provided to farmers under the Anchor Borrowers Scheme are over invoiced when compared with price at the open market. The TNI coordinator urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to address the issue.


Tunde Bakare, a FACAN official, attributed farmers’ inability to access the facility to lack of consultation with the farmers on policy formulation, implementation and monitoring of the credit scheme, due to the top to bottom approach instead of the bottom to top approach in the process.

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