Nirsal also said a total of about USD623 million is spent annually for catfish importation into Nigeria, a country said to have about 71.2 million cultivable hectares of land.
Speaking on Wednesday, June 1 2016 at the second day of a three day workshop organized for bankers, the Executive Director, Nirsal Plc, Mr Aro Afejide said that USD623 million is spent on dairy importation, USD500 million spent for sugar importation, USD 4 billion spent on wheat importation, USD2.2 billion spent on cotton importation while USD2 billion is spent on rice importation annually.
According to him, the organization is building the capacity of bankers because of lack of trust between them and famers.
A regional Director with UBA, Mr Danjuma Salihu, said his bank has been agricultural friendly adding that they are aware of the risk inherent in agric lending and how to mitigate them.
A credit analyst with Heritage Bank Plc, Mr Olukayode Oyebamgbose said because of the change in government direction, many will be going into agricultural businesses.
“They make us understand that they have been able to train N40, 000 local farmers both retail and commercial. As bankers, they brought us here to strengthen our relationship with farmers on Financing Agricultural Value Chain.”
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