Unlike oil and gas, the growth of agriculture in Nigeria will lead not only to prosperity, but also improvement in income equality in the country.

The Managing Director of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Aliyu Hameed, who made the observation, said the scheme was part of the continued commitment of the Central Bank of Nigeria to support economic growth.

Hameed, while making a presentation at the Design Workshop on Establishing an African Agriculture Risk Sharing and Financing Mechanism organized by the African Development bank (AfDB) in Nairobi, Kenya, said the present administration has great focus on sector due to its potential to boost the economy.

Meanwhile, at a post event assessment, AfDB identified the NIRSAL financial model as the current successes of African agriculture.

However, NIRSAL chief described the initiative as game changer in Nigeria’s agricultural space, which will have a huge positive impact not only on the agriculture sector but also on the entire economy if the projections are met.

For instance, NIRSAL plans to facilitate lending to huge number of agricultural producers in Nigeria in the next 10 years by providing guarantees through intermediaries like microfinance banks and cooperatives.

The event was organized by AfDB as part of its plan to partner with African governments and financial institutions to design an innovative mechanism, which will facilitate increase in financing to the agriculture sector.

This will be achieved by de-risking the sector’s value chains, reducing transaction costs and unlocking financial flows into the agriculture sector at scale across the continent.