Masha says financial inclusion for farmers will aid food security

The Founder of Baban Gona (which means ‘Great Farm’ in the Hausa language), a company that focuses on providing expansion services to small-holder farmers in Nigeria, Kola Masha, has said the financial inclusion for farmers will help the country’s quest for food security.

Masha, in a tweet chat with The Guardian, focused on how Nigeria can de-risk agriculture for small-holder farmers in the COVID-19 era.

Masha, who tweeted on how to mitigate the impact on farmers, especially small farm owners, said it was important that the Nigerian government support people of such category with loans.
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“The key is to ensure that farmers have the loans to buy the quality and quantity of inputs to get best practice yields,” he said.

Masha said it was unfortunate that Nigerian farmers achieve yields that are 20 per cent of that of other farmers in the developing world but do not have a supporting system to help them.

He stated that Baban Gona would be providing accessible financial services and expert advice to about 5,000 small-holder farmers to get bank accounts in the next couple of months.

“The lockdown has impacted supply chains for the availability of key agricultural inputs. But we do not foresee food shortages (when farms are adequately funded).

“Our farmers have definitely been able to access support. It has been a very smooth process for us,” he said.

He, however, said his company had commenced initiatives to support and protect small farmers and their families in the COVID-19 era and commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for being “a critical partner and very focused on supporting Nigerian farmers.”
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