The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) have said that unless Nasarawa State Government fulfils its part of the bargain for accessing the N1.5 billion credit facility, the loan would not be released.
The Head, Development Finance Office of the Apex bank branch in Lafia, Akin Ogidi, stated this during a meeting with representative of NIRSAL and officials of the state government in lafia.
Ogidi revealed that the meeting with NIRSAL and officials of the state was about the modalities for the collection of the loan and warned that the requirements must strictly be adhered to avoid abnormally in the process.
According to the CBN’s Head in Lafia, we have met and agreed on modalities for accessing the N1.5bn credit facility, aimed at empowering youths toward establishing agribusinesses across the state.
Ogidi confirmed that the state government was willing to take part in the programme.
“We have deliberated and they will go and work out the modalities and we will make arrangements to proceed further.
“What we did was to tell them what they need to do and they have agreed and they are going to start work on it,” he stated.
Chairman of the committee set up by the Nasarawa State government to secure the credit facility and Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to the state governor on Youths, Sports and NGOs, Yakubu Kwanta, said both parties had agreed on modalities for accessing the loan.
Kwanta disclosed that the meeting was intensive and fruitful, with modalities agreed upon on how to access the loan facility.
He said the state government had since kick-started the process of the loan disbursement, with application forms issued freely to youths from across the 13 local government areas of the state.
The SSA further disclosed that the collection of the completed forms had commenced, following which the committee would profiled the applicants.
“Our main targets are youths that are graduates of agriculture and youths that are desirous of going into agriculture,” he said.
Kwanta stressed that the project was for youths between the age of 18 to 35 and not for the elderly.
“A lot of elderly people that are not within the age range are applying, but it’s at the discretion of the committee to sit down and make sure we strictly adhere to the directives of His Excellency, so that at the end, the aim of the project will not be defeated,” the SSA said.
Anthony Adgidzi, Lafia
