NIGERIAN farmers may soon heave a sigh of relief as the Federal Government is planning to reduce interest rate on agricultural loans from 21 percent to 5 percent.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Audu Ogbeh, who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja said that arrangements are ongoing to access the Nigerian Insurance Risk Lending on Agricultural loans (NIRSAL) facility of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to fashion out ways by which farmers could access loan at a 5 percent interest rate.

Speaking at a two-day national workshop on “A new Agricultural Policy for Nigeria,” the Minister expressed worry that Nigeria is the only country in the world outside Africa still witnessing agricultural lending above 5 percent interest.

Ogbe said “this morning I spoke with some officials of NIRSAL and I told them we have to bring down the interest rate on agricultural loans to 5 percent, we just have to do it and the financial institutions have to cope with that, any erring financial institution would be sanctioned severely, otherwise we will not survive.

The minister wondered, “Is there anything that other parts of world have done that Nigeria is failing to do? The fiscal and monetary policy has done terrible damage to us in the country.”