Twenty thousand rice farmers in Niger State would be assisted with a N1.8 billion, under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers Programme in the next four years.
The coordinator of Agriculture Graduates Association of Nigeria (AGAN), Niger State chapter, Hussaini Iliyasu, today at a forum in Minna, Niger State, said that the loan would cover the entire chain of the rice sector, with a scope that captures different cooperatives.
According to the coordinator, the association has done a detailed study of the total package, consisting of inputs, technical support, equipment and marketing strategies for the past three years.
He gave the assurance that all the cooperatives have been properly verified to authenticate their individual membership of AGAN.
In her remarks, the CBN representative, Mrs. Margaret Sulaiman, tasked stakeholders to tap from the success story of the scheme recorded in Kebbi and Kano states?.
Sulaiman urged farmers to be focused and committed to rice production, noting that this would go a long way in alleviating poverty among the teeming unemployed youths in the country.
The programme is the Rice Value Chain Investment Project Multi-stakeholders’ meeting involving the Niger State Ministry of Agriculture, IFAD, CBN and AGAN. [myad]
