CBN’s Farmers Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, NISRAL Leaps To New Height, Creates 1.2m Indirect Jobs

The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has recorded some giant steps with the creation of  more than 1.25 million indirect jobs in the nation’s agribusiness.
The initiative has also  created  250,000 direct jobs for farmers with over N500 billion disbursed so far to the farmers across the country.

  NIRSAL, which is an initiative  of the Central Bank of Nigeria, focuses on  Value Chain Fixing, Agribusiness Project Development, Finance Facilitation and Agricultural Risk Management.

To further reduce the effective interest rate for borrowers with a good credit history the NIRSAL  noted that it runs an interest Drawback Scheme that rewards diligent borrowers’ behaviour through discretionary rebates of up to 40% of interest paid. 

According to NIRSAL, the rebate payments apply only to pre-approved CRG transactions and are made every 90 days subject to compliance with the loan’s underlying conditions and timely repayments of Principal and Interest during the review period.

It further explained that within  five days of receipt of loan term sheets from the CBN, NIRSAL disburses to the farmer-applicants.

“We observe the highest ethical and professional standards as all funds from the CBN are disbursed directly into farmers’ accounts and farmers can access such funds once drawdown conditions have been met.

“As an agricultural finance risk management organization, we are mindful of the various risks associated with yield and repayment capacity of the farmers.

“That is why we have launched the `Area Yield Index Insurance’ – an insurance product tailor-made for farmers and established the Project Monitoring and Remediation Offices (PMROs) nationwide.

“It is working closely with farmers throughout the farming cycle to ensure success of its projects as well as protecting the interest of all verified and bonafide farmers.

“These additional services are provided to farmers at NIRSAL’s own cost.

“No off-taker will be allowed to hold farmers to ransom as existing clauses of signed tripartite agreements with various off-takers will ensure that farmers will get value for their produce in addition to sanctions for non-performance by off-takers,’’ it said.

Meanwhile, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo applauded  NISRAL for its drive to boost lending and agribusiness in the country.