Nigerian farmers receive financial support from Mercy Corps, USAID

In response to the global food and nutrition crisis, USAID and Feed the Future, the United States government’s global food security initiative, is expanding efforts to directly address and mitigate the impacts of the global food, fuel, and fertilizer shortages in Nigeria.

The USAID funded Feed the Future Nigeria Rural Resilience Activity, implemented by Mercy Corps, in collaboration with the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) and Save the Children International (SCI), has announced that 262 of its participants have received a Sterling Bank Agric loan to boost their productivity and increase yields.

Earlier the bank and the Rural Resilience Activity launched a disbursement ceremony to celebrate the significant contribution of N82.4 million in loans. Recipients included women and youth farmers and agribusiness owners in the Northeast states of Gombe and Yobe.

Many farmers belong to cooperatives supported by the Motherhen Development Foundation in  Gombe State and in Yobe states and the Sustainable Household Income and Enhanced Livelihoods initiative.

“Sterling Bank is proud to lead this critical effort at rebuilding the economic fortunes of Northeast Nigeria by providing appropriate and demand driven financial services that align with the aspirations of women and young people in the region and across Nigeria who are often excluded from financial services,” said Olushola Obikanye,  Group Head, Agric Finance & Solid Minerals Group of Sterling Bank

“This partnership will significantly improve the living standards of farmers and other vulnerable people by boosting food sufficiency and poverty reduction as a prerequisite for de-escalation of insecurity and conflict in the North-East.”

The loans are in response to rising food insecurity and inflation, which are attributed to challenges that predate the Russian invasion of Ukraine such as the economic impacts of Covid-19 as well as other macro-economic conditions like misguided trade, agricultural, and monetary policies.

Support

In December 2020, Mercy Corps signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sterling Bank to increase access to finance and working capital for smallholder farming households. Since then, Sterling Bank has been working with the Rural Resilience Activity to address constraints to agricultural lending such as loan repayment, financial illiteracy, access to higher-value markets, and information around climate-related risks.

“The loan disbursement to the women-led farmers’ cooperatives will not only foster financial security and increase economic opportunities for the women but also contribute to advancing food security and nutrition, and to breaking the bias against women. It will further project women as key stakeholders in the food industry,” Country Director of Mercy Corps Nigeria, Adesola Osuji said.

Margarita Aswani, the Chief of Party, Feed the Future Nigeria Rural Resilience Activity, said her group was proud to be working hand in hand with Sterling Bank to support more than 204 maize producers and nearly 300 hectares of land in Akko and Kwami LGAs of Gombe State, as well as 58 cowpea producers in Yobe State to access agricultural inputs and tractors to increase land productivity and jointly tackle food insecurity.

She expressed optimism to ensuring that more farmers in the North East continue to gain access to finance and working capital.

The Sterling Bank and Mercy Corps interventions target smallholder farmers and microenterprises working in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors with a particular interest in young people and women.

The scope covers maize, cowpea, groundnuts, rice production, and small ruminants. The partnership between the two organizations is expected to benefit more farmers groups in the targeted Northeast states in the near future.