Sterling Bank partners NGO on agricultural production in North East
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Sterling Bank has partnered Feed the Future Nigeria Rural Resilience Activity (RRA) to contribute N82.4 million loans to help raise agricultural production in the North East where farmers daily face persecution from terrorists.
Feed the Future, a global food security initiative of the United States government, has provided 262 smallholder farmers with loans from the budget.
The intervention, on the heels of the global food and nutrition crisis, is part of Washington’s efforts to directly address and mitigate the impacts of shortages of food, fuel, and fertilizer in Nigeria.
Feed the Future Nigeria RRA is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Mercy Corps in collaboration with the International Fertilizer Development Center and Save the Children International.
The programme said 262 beneficiaries have received a Sterling Bank Agric loan to boost productivity and increase yields.
Sterling Bank and RRA on 16 August held a disbursement ceremony to celebrate the contribution of the N82.4 million loans.
Recipients included women, youth farmers, and agribusiness owners in Gombe and Yobe.
“The loan disbursement to the women-led farmers’ cooperatives will not only foster financial security and increase economic opportunities for the women but also contribute to advancing food security and nutrition, and to breaking the bias against women.
“It will further project women as key stakeholders in the food industry,” said Adesola Osuji, acting Country Director of Mercy Corps Nigeria.
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Hindrances to food production
Olushola Obikanye, Sterling Bank Group Head of Agric Finance & Solid Minerals Group, lamented at the ceremony that food production is hindered by farmers’ inability to afford high-quality agro-inputs, per The PUNCH.
He also listed rising costs (50-100 per cent higher in one year), inaccessible farmlands, high costs of doing business, distorted markets, as well as rising costs of transporting food items, which result in significant profit losses.
Mercy Corps in December 2020 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sterling Bank to increase access to finance and working capital for smallholder farming households.
Since then, the bank has been working with RRA to address constraints to agricultural lending such as loan repayment, financial illiteracy, access to higher-value markets, and information around climate-related risks.
Feed the Future Nigeria RRA Chief of Party Margarita Aswani said the partnership has supported 204 maize farmers cultivating nearly 300 hectares of land in Akko and Kwami Councils in Gombe.
Up to 58 cowpea producers in Yobe have also been assisted to access agricultural inputs and tractors to increase land productivity and jointly tackle food insecurity.
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