By Umar Bayo Abdulwahab
Ilorin
Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara state has called on commercial banks to expand its funding windows on agriculture in the state as part of efforts to re-position the state’s economy.
The governor said that the state government was working on strategies that would encourage commercial banks to play greater role in the financing
of its economic development programmes.
Ahmed, who made the call when the Group Managing Director, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Mr Ladi Balogun and his management team, paid him a courtesy visit, added that commercial banks would be expected to expand its funding window of agriculture as agribusiness in the state.
“Agriculture is gradually being de-risked, so it is making it quite enabling for prospective investors to come in here to see how to take advantage of what we have on ground.
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‘We have tried to make it as private sector driven as possible. We have quite a few individuals who have invested in processing which of course creates a lot of room for backward integration that a lot of farmers now go into structured large scale farming culture”, the governor added.
Ahmed stressed that the prevailing economic challenges in the country makes it expedient to explore various strategies in financing economic development.
Responding, Balogun said the bank was exploring new ways of assisting the Kwara state government in improving its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
According to him, the bank was ready to take similar initiative of co-operating with the state government in financing agriculture.
