Federal government has secured a loan of $1.1 billion from the government of Brazil to support development of the agricultural sector.
Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed disclosed this on Thursday at the launch of the ‘Green Imperative’ an agricultural partnership program between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the government of Brazil, aimed at boosting agricultural production in Nigeria, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja
According to her “ the project we are launching today will be implemented with a total loan package of US$1.1billion majorly from the Brazilian Government which will be disbursed in four tranches over a period of two years.
“It is pertinent to state here that greater percentage of the loan will be provided in kind through the supply of agricultural machineries and implements in form of Completely Knocked Down (CKD) parts.
“This arrangement is expected to reduce fiduciary risks and create more employment opportunities for our teeming youth and those that will be involved in assembling the machineries and implements.
The initiative will be purely private sector led in all its operations including the assembling of the machineries/ implements, operation of the service centres and the agro-processing centres.
The Minister said the project will be implemented in all the 774 Local Government Areas of the country in phases.
This is coming as part of federal government plans to mitigate key agricultural gaps including the inability to meet domestic food requirements and Nigeria’s inability to satisfy growing export demands in terms of quantity and quality
The country is challenged by her input system, hampered by farming models that are largely inefficient, poor seedlings, lack of adequate fertilizer input, poor irrigation system as well as absence of crop protection.
The initiative, BusinessDay gathered, is also aimed at tapping from the successful experience of Brazil in agriculture to improve agriculture as Nigeria and Brazil are said to possess similar environmental conditions
The program, which is tagged “The Green Imperative”., is expected to amongst other things entail the introduction of advanced Brazilian Agricultural Equipment (ABIMAQ) and the establishment of Training Centres for Nigerian Farmers across the country, to boost agriculture which contributed about 39% to the gross National Product GNP in 2017 and employs no less than 80% of the Nigeria Labour force.
