[Nigeria] Heritage Bank deepens support for agric value chain

Heritage Bank Plc has disclosed plans to partner in the ongoing efforts to revolutionise the country’s agricultural value-chain, particularly the rice farming. The move to achieve these is also part of efforts to enhance agribusiness and aid economic development under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Nigeria is reputed as the second largest importers of rice globally, with attendant huge capital flight from the economy. By becoming self-sufficient in rice production, the country is expected to not only save huge foreign exchange from its importation, but also earn same from exporting its excess production.

Group Head, Agriculture Finance, Heritage Bank, Olugbenga Awe, at the third edition of Rice Investment Summit in Abuja, in collaboration with New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD), said the bank’s drive to support rice production was borne out of the conviction that agribusiness is profitable.

He said it is also an act of patriotism to achieve food security and sufficiency in the country.He, however, noted that the challenges facing rice production were subset of myriads of constraints facing agriculture in general, as most farmlands are located in the rural areas with poor road network and electricity supply, majority are financially excluded with no access to banking services.

Olugbenga hinted that Heritage Bank is effectively tackling the bottlenecks, since it has long identified the opportunities in agribusiness before the collapse of crude oil prices through its various programmes. This will contribute to the projection for Year 2020 in the production of 7.7 million metric tonnes of milled rice or 10.8 million metric tonnes of paddy rice at milling recovery ratio of 62 per cent.

On the Heritage Bank’s involvement in ABP, Awe noted that the bank has strategically put in place measures to ensure fidelity to contract agreements and adherence to fair trade in making sure that farmers earned decent profit for their efforts, which is critical to the sustainability of the programmes.

According to him, “the bank’s participation in the programme has paid off as we currently have a rich pool of farmers’ data to support grains production.“The registered farmers in our database can easily be identified and trained with the support of extension services to plant any grains as the season demands. This flexibility provides continuous cash flows to the famers and ensure that more farmers are enlisted to join the programme,” he said.

The Group Head, further disclosed, “In our quest to participate in the rice value-chain through the ABP, we supported hundreds of small holder farmers in various communities in Kaduna and Zamfara State.”

“The sector is driving the next set of entrepreneurs and we are committed to the development of the sector using appropriate technology and modern farm practices. We walk the talk in Heritage Bank as demonstrated in our portfolio allocation to agribusiness,” he said.He noted that the large-scale operators are enabled to expand existing capacities and industrialise for local consumption and export.

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