To widen agricultural finance and ensure food security, the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) has commenced the validation of its proposed Non-Interest Finance Framework and Guidelines to farmers.

Speaking yesterday at a roundtable and validation session on the proposed framework, the Executive Secretary of NADF, Mohamed Ibrahim, explained that the initiative was part of efforts to ensure that farmers, agribusinesses and other actors across the agricultural value chain have access to diverse and innovative financing options.

He said the objective is not simply to introduce another financing framework but to broaden the financing ecosystem for agriculture by ensuring that every credible financing option is available to Nigerian farmers, agribusinesses, and other value chain actors,” Ibrahim said.

According to him, the documents were deliberately presented as drafts to allow stakeholders to scrutinise them.

And contribute their expertise before finalisation, stating that the success of the initiative would depend not only on the quality of the framework but also on partnerships and collective commitment to its implementation.

Also, the Director of the Development Finance Advisory Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Paul Oluikpe, emphasised that the scale of Nigeria’s agricultural financing needs remained enormous, considering the country’s population, the importance of agriculture to the economy and the challenges across the sector.