Ezea wants microfinance banks integrated in rural, agric finance

Okey Ezea, Senator, representing Enugu North Senatorial District at the National Assembly, has advocated the integration of microfinance banks into the disbursement of agricultural and rural credit programmes for an improved access to rural finance.

The Senator, who spoke at a Forum in Nsukka, Enugu State, to inform his constituents about some of his constituency projects anrehis legislative agenda, said that the inclusion of microfinance banks in the disbursement of agricultural credits would eliminate diversion of such funds by politicians and their cronies who prevent real farmers and rural investors from accessing such funds.

He also said the business orientation of MFBs would help prevent repayment failures that had led to failure of similar programmes in the past.

Ezea however recommended that the involvement of MFBs as disbursement agents would ensure proper disbursements and enforcement of repayments to ensure that the funds achieve the targeted development multiplier effects.

“The Federal Government has, in the past, created some special purpose finance vehicles to drive investments in rural agriculture and other enterprises. One of them is the Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NARDB). This special bank was designed to provide single-digit credit to rural farmers and businesses. I do not know how effective they have become, but there is evidence that a lot needs to be done to make its impact felt.

“The first thing to do is to redesign the disbursement methods by making the thriving microfinance banks spread all over the country the disbursement channels. This will eliminate the situations where such special funds are hijacked by politicians and their cronies. It will also ensure improved repayment frequencies and costs because it is the MFBs that will work out repayment plans failing which they will be excluded from future disbursements.

“One thing that governments at the federal, state, and local government areas should do is to be deliberate about the provision of infrastructure in the rural areas. Roads are important, so also are agricultural inputs. This was why in my constituency projects, I am paying attention to the construction of rural farm roads, provision of fertilizers, and other items that enable farming. Our intervention was chiefly to point towards the direction of what we believe should be the area of greater national priorities, and that is why I believe the government at all tiers should shift attention to rural economic exploitation through the provision of access roads, potable water, and other tangible and intangible amenities,”, he said.

These, he stressed, would ensure that productive capital get to rural entrepreneurs, curtail migration, and “become the nectar that will draw the interest of bigger private sector investors that will be attracted by infrastructure, an availability of opportunities along the value chain, thus changing the economic fortunes of the country in five years or less.”

“If government at all levels becomes intentional about this, the 30 percent increase which I projected will likely be surpassed. Our traditional agriculture resources alone are enough to transform this economy if duly and profitably exploited. If we then exploit the various value chains of the crops we produce, like yams, cocoa, cassava, oil palm, and all the fruits and grains that thrive in many parts of this country, I do not see any reason why we wouldn’t be globally competitive in food production in a few years,” if duly and profitably exploited”, he concluded.