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AUDU Ogbeh, minister of agriculture, has said that there is no going back on restructuring and repositioning of the Bank of Agriculture, BoA, to aide in diversifying the economy from over-dependence on oil as the major stay of the country’s economy. During the Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening of Bank of Agriculture Project in Kaduna, the minister said President Muhammadu Buhari has given the approval for the restructuring and repositioning of the bank.

“Restructuring, capitalising and repositioning of BoA is one of such programmes through which President Buhari has given his approval judging that its remains a key instruments required for funding agricultural activities to help diversify the economy away from this over-reliance on oil.

“At no other time in the history of Nigeria that government has taken such interest and time to assess the operations of BoA with a view to exploring these potentials by promotion of agricultural practice through initiating and adopting appropriate financing measures needed.

“Our country currently needs a financing mechanism that will help small holder farmers, agro-prenurials and SMEs access credit facilities at affordable cost. As a matter of fact, we’re looking at single digit interest rate, that’s what we believe in the Ministry.”

Vincent Akpotaire, director-general, Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, said BoA will be restructured  to meet a model that will help it do business, particularly with rural populace that are into agricultural business. “Specifically, policy and regulation of the BoA will undergo due restructuring, staff capacity, financial base, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) of the bank will be restructured to meet international standard in agro-allied enterprises.

“I wonder why BoA will not succeed in Nigeria if others have succeeded somewhere else in the world; there must be check and balance in loan being giving out, BoA should not just be a conduit for giving out loan, it should also be a conduit to recovering the loan being giving out,” Akpotaire said.

—  Mar 20, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT

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