₦airaland Forum

~Bluetooth:
All hail to ikechukwu. . . . .A TRUE SON OF IGBOLAND!!!!!!!.

Oboma1:
Ndigbo have just scored a goal, after the Yoruba's have been leading with a huge margin.

Catch_fire:
I think u are blind. Just look at her chin.

Ruq:
@Catch fire thank you

Beaf:
Whats the point of abuse? Is it a lack of sense as usual?
Would you want Berlusconi to be in control of your governor, especially when he is performing? Think well!
If Fashola forgets to cross just a single t, he will go down with Tinubu.

Kobojunkie:
I believe that question there is best for your mother, so she can have another chance to instill in you respect which you seem to still lack for womenfolk from that. As for my gender, I am not your mate and definitely not gay!

Beaf:
Because land is being funneled to Tinubu fraudulently. "Asiwaju" is Fasholas albatross.

Kobojunkie:
I can relate! 

Again with the useless information dispensing. . . did I ask anywhere for this? Why in the world is it now my problem?

EzeUche:
Foolish one, we Aro had the trade on lock in Igboland! We Igbos did not even know you Yoruba existed. We knew the Hausa and Bini people existed but not some Yoruba.

EzeUche:
Hush fool. I see you were trying to take a swipe at my people with such a response. I heard you Yorubas were big slavers as well, selling your own people. That is why so many of you all are in Brazil.

SEFAGO:
Everyone here is so gay, most especially the descendant of slave traders

[size=14pt]Sanusi: N140bn Agric Facility Dormant[/size]

Wednesday, 02 June 2010 03:20 Thisday   
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said yesterday that out of the about N200 billion earmarked to be disbursed as agricultural loans to farmers in the country, only N60b have been utilized two years after.

The CBN had in the first quarter of last year created N200 billion Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS), in collaboration with the Federal Government. Despite the increase in the number of the participating banks from two to five, many of the target beneficiaries could not access the fund for various reasons including bureaucracy and their inability to meet the conditions of the individual banks.
[size=13pt]Sanusi said agriculture was 42 per cent of GDP of the country and if the sector had just 20 per cent increase in the GDP, it would have improved the country’s GDP considerably higher than at any point in the last 10 years.
Speaking yesterday at the third edition of the annual Partnership on Trade, Industry and Commerce (POTICO 111) organized by the US Embassy in Nigeria, First Bank Plc and Bank of Industry and facilitated by Rimsom Associates, the CBN governor declared that elsewhere on the continent, agriculture was a top priority unlike in Nigeria.[/size]He said for there to be a sustainable development, there must be focus on the value chain that agriculture creates and he gave example of the Zimbabwean farmers brought by the Kwara State government to buttress his point.
He said within a short time of their activities in Kwara State, a starch making firm in a South-eastern state and a dairy firm in Lagos rely on the products of the Zimbabwean farmers to run their industries.

“This kind of value chain is what provides finance. A bank like First Bank, UBA or any bank would easily lend money to a farmer, who has a target market in a multinational corporation that has guaranteed his products. That increases the demand for cattle, it increases the demand for animal feed and all along that value chain, it creates jobs and incomes. So, focusing on the value chain is the greatest way of iimproving incomes and addressing poverty,” Sanusi said.

He said 80 per cent of tomatoes produced in Kadara in Kano State by local farmers are lost because they are storage facilities and no decent transportation system to move the products.

He said it was not a problem of the banks not lending money to agriculture, but the issue is how to address the risks in agricultural loans because the banks would still not lend if they were not convinced that the farmers would come back.
Sanusi said he met with top bankers at the weekend and they have put on the table what he called the Nigerian Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agriculture, which he proposes to be a bulwark against defaults in the sector.

He said they would set up a number of guarantees that would enable the small scale farmers to access agricultural loans.
In addition to this, Sanusi said they have also proposed an agricultural insurance that would allow insurance firms assess risks of the sector.
However, despite the complaints of the sector, he said there were many companies in Nigeria today that are borrowing at single digit rates.

He gave the example of the Dangote Group, which he said have facilities of about N110b from the banks at 8.5 per cent, for which he added a grateful President of the Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has called to thank him.
He added that overall, interest rates have crashed courtesy of CBN’s  policy that very high rates are inconsistent with a sustainable development.

He said the high cost of the overheads in the banking sector owing to deplorable infrastructure was responsible for the high interest rates in order for them to meet up.
Sanusi said they have been advising banks to pool together in providing some services so as to reduce overheads adding that the focus in the last one year has been how to make lending profitable to sustain a post-crisis economy.
Earlier in her opening remarks, United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Robin Sanders, said her country was willing to assist Nigeria in her quest to attain food security.

Sanders noted that previous years dialogue have been successful because it has increased the participation of small scale entreprises in Nigeria in the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
She said the initiative has facilitated a number of agro-allied firms in the country and it held a lot of promise to Nigeriens with entrepreneurial skills to realize their potential.

Also speaking, Managing Director of Bank of Industry, Mrs. Evelyn Oputu said one of the deliverables of the annual dialogue was the opening of the AGOA office at the BOI office complex in Marina.
Oputu said the AGOA office trains about 50 Nigerians monthly in various fields of entrepreneurial skills.
In his own speech, the Group Managing Director of First Bank Plc, Mr. Stephen Onasanya said the problem with agricultural loans in the country was that once government money was branded, it would not be easy getting it back.

He said First Bank Agricultural products are labeled at 9 per cent, but that the problem of ignorance was inhibiting the small-holder farmers from assessing its facility.
However, he said there are facilities for peasant farmers as well as fresh graduates, who have interest in taking to agriculture adding that there is a large liquidity where farmers borrow from the banks.

Onlytruth:
Lagos mosquitoes are the most aggressive mosquitoes in Africa! They are even immune to insecticides now. Spray them and they play dead for a few hours, only to wake up when you fall asleep to teach you the lesson of your life!

Fear of Lagos mosquito = beginning of wisdom!