Sterling Bank holds summit on $1trn agribusiness

Fri, Aug 30, 2019

By publisher

2 MIN READ

POLICYMAKERS, international financial institutions, value chain players and development agencies will be part of the second Sterling Bank Agriculture Summit Africa billed for September 5 and 6 in Abuja.

The summit with the theme “Agriculture – Your Piece of The $1trn Economy”,  is geared toward attainment of the $1 trillion Africa agribusiness economy dream of the World Bank by 2030.

Yemi Odubiyi, executive director, corporate and investment banking, Sterling Bank, said the bank and others would reposition Nigeria through agriculture to achieve food security in the continent. “Food security is a major threat in Nigeria. We will not be able to stabilise this country until we solve the issue of food security, which we are at the forefront.

“We are trying to address issue of food security and job creation in the country. We believe that supporting the initiative of the current administration, we will be able to solve the challenges of food security. About 10 percent of our loans are on agriculture because the sector is a very important area for us.

“We are working with other stakeholders for us to achieve the $1 trillion target of the World Bank by bringing back the good old days of agriculture boom where cocoa and other cash crops were faring well in the country,” he said.

Odubiyi said during the summit, the bank would launch the Digital Stakeholders Platform to address wastages, post-harvest losses and other areas to boost the sector.

Bukola Awosanya, group head, Agric finance and solid minerals of the bank, noted  that agriculture has been one of the bank’s focal areas, adding that the summit would cover the entire African continent, compared to last year, which was limited to Nigeria. She said the bank had been in the business of promoting agriculture in the last nine years, noting that it was the first commercial bank involved in the Anchor Borrowers Programme, ABP, having taken agriculture to be an important sector in the country.

– Aug. 30, 2019 @ 16:57 GMT |