Oyo State Government Provides Loan Facility For Farmers

A statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Dotun Oyelade, disclosed that the single digit interest loan facility would ensure more access at reasonable interest rates for farmers to expand their businesses and attract potential investors into the farming value chain.

During a media briefing held at the Ministry of Information and Civic Orientation Film Theatre, in Ibadan, the Executive Chairman, Oyo State Agricultural Credit Corporation, Taofeek Akeugbagold, said the present administration in the state was committed to reforming the farming sector with notable programmes like SAfER, among others.

He noted that the loan facility would ensure food security, cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government, and focus on small holder farmers, who bear the burden of feeding the teeming population.

The Executive Chairman stated that the loan facility would be disbursed to farmers in all the thirty-three (33) Local Government Areas of the state so as to improve food security in the state.

He said: “They account for about ninety percent (90%) of the farmers’ population and are responsible for about ninety-five percent (95%) of the aggregate food and fibre production in the state. They are mostly residents of the state’s rural areas who are poorly served by basic public amenities.”

Akeugbagold said to access the loan, which would be disbursed and recouped by microfinance banks across the seven geopolitical zones in the state, each benefitting farmer must bring a guarantor, who is a civil servant on Grade Level 7 and above.

He noted that the scheme would bring more stability into developing the agricultural sector and provide an enabling environment for the development of Oyo State farms and agricultural business, revealing that the loan process, which is apolitical, would be disbursed to farmers who are duly registered with the state Ministry of Agriculture.

In his remarks, the General Manager, Agricultural Credit Corporation, Emmanuel Ogundiran, explained that the state government had recapitalised the corporation, disclosing that the corporation had received some funds with the mandate to finance the agric value chain completely.

Ogundiran stated: “The modality in giving out the loan is going to be exactly as enshrined in loan conditions of the corporation. We have set rules for giving out loans and for this programme, we are making use of microfinance banks which are governed by the Central Bank of Nigeria regulations and also regulated by the bank and financial institutions body.

“The corporation is funded by a system of revolving accounts which were built up over the years. Moreover, considering the realities of the present time accentuated by the removal of fuel subsidy, which has severally impoverished the peasantry, the loan support programme cannot have come at a better time,” he affirmed.

He clarified that the corporation had divided the entire state into seven zones for ease of administration, and intended to commence a sensitisation campaign in all the zones very soon, noting that the procedure for disbursement would be unveiled at the subsequent town-hall meetings with farmers across the seven zones.

The GM revealed that individual farmers, who are not registered members of any association, could also apply for the loan, as the corporation did not intend to give loan to associations but to individual farmers.