USAID set to boost Agricbusiness in Kaduna

Rural smallholder farmers at work

A ground-breaking agricultural initiative tagged 'Feed the Future' under the aegis of USAID, has been unveiled in Kaduna state to strengthen the business enabling environment, promote private sector investment and broaden access to finance to boost food security, with special emphasis on the ease of doing business in the state's agricultural sector.

This renewed move, Cubinks learnt, is focused on seven states of Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kebbi and Niger, where no fewer than five thousand  small and medium enterprises are expected to receive credit from financial institutions to the tune of 200 million dollars between now and the end of the year 2023, for accelerated agricultural development.

Apart from empowering small and medium enterprises in the sector, 'Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Investment Activity, with Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture(CNFA), as the prime implementing partner, aims to viably and sustainably link thousands of micro, small and medium size enterprises(MSMEs) and producer organizations with high-performing commercial actors in the rice, maize, soybean, aquaculture and cowpea value chains.

Declaring the Agribusiness Finance and Investment Summit open, Kaduna state Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the newly-created Ministry of Business and Innovation and Technology, Dr Haliru Musa Soba, reiterated the state government's commitment and determination to move the agricultural sector to enviable heights, noting that the coming of the USAID's Feed the Future project into the state was timely and would undoubtedly lead to a win-win situation for the state.

Responding, Managing Director/Chief of Party of the five-year agricultural programme, Dr Adam Saffer, expressed delight over the impressive turnout of all stakeholders in the sector, assuring that given the enormous potentials of Kaduna state in the field of agriculture, coupled with streamlined regulations, more effective policies, improved production and processing practices as well as significantly increased finance and investment flows, the project would increase competitiveness and returns of both large and small scale agricultural enterprises in the state.

While maintaining that the essence of the project was to identify the challenges, opportunities and solutions and see how agriculture could become a profitable venture for all stakeholders in the sector, Dr Saffer explained that the project would also work assiduously towards expanding access to financial services across the value chain, through informal, community-based savings plans; formal and informal credit guarantee programmes; and insurance offerings as the case may be.

On his part, the Permanent Secretary of the state's Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Sani Sabiu, who spoke on the need to create a more conducive environment for agribusiness investment, disclosed that the state recently procured 300 tractors as part of its renewed effort to make the sector more attractive and technologically-driven to enhance and promote what he called out-grower/off-taker relationship in the sector.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Da All-Green Seeds Limited, a Kaduna-based seed company, Engr Stephen Yakubu Atar - one the resource persons at the event - in a brief interview with Correspondents, commended the effort of USAID for championing the Feed the Future project, revealing that his outfit is working tirelessly in the area of improving seeds and seedlings for increased productivity and profitability in sector.

The one-day finance and investment summit which attracted experts from the Bank of Agriculture, Agronomists, Finance Managers, micro, small and medium size enterprises, cooperative societies, individual farmers and other critical stakeholders in the state's agricultural sector, ended with the organizers' assurance that it would facilitate 200 million dollars in new lending and 100 million dollars in new investment across the seven states earmarked for the project.