By Amaka Ifeakandu Lagos
Heritage Bank Plc has reiterated its commitment to further deepen the drive to support agribusiness value chain in order to fast track food security and suffi ciency in the country. Th e Managing Director/Chief Executive Offi cer of the bank, Mr Ifi e Sekibo, who disclosed this, stated that in a bid to support food suffi ciency, Heritage Bank would not relent in boosting the agric base of the nation and; making farming profi table to stakeholders and attractive to the youth. Specifi cally, he affi rmed that the bank would focus in supporting the agric space through fi nancing farmers to purchase modern technology; as the funding will bring about transformative development in the sector. According to him, the bank would support the drive for cash crop commodities that would boost Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings, which the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has always been cautious given the dangers the continuous reliance on imported food items pose to its eff orts to create jobs as well as develop and diversify the economy. He, however, noted that the bank’s support goes beyond food suffi ciency to increasing cash crop commodities that would boost Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings. He hinted that Heritage Bank is eff ectively tackling the bottlenecks since it has long identifi ed the opportunities in agribusiness, thereby off ering solutions to ease of doing
business in the sector. “For ease of fi nancing, we would be better off with functional commodity exchanges as a country. We can start by refi nancing commodities through a warehousing receipt systems, gradually we will move to crop receipt. With commodities exchange, the valuechain is strengthened and the whole system is structured. Exchange helps in reducing the long marketing chain, it helps in enforcement of commodity standards, it provides price certainty and in some cases storage and warehousing facilities,” Awe suggested. He further noted, “if we sustain the current momentum on rice, we shall surely export rice in the nearest future, and the operative word here is sustaining the momentum. However, there is need for strategic alignment on objectives. Th e current focus by government is on small holders’ farmers using the instrumentality of the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) by Central Bank of Nigeria.” Th e Group Head, Agriculture Finance, said to hasten the export drive, commercial farmers will have to step in and drive the process using mechanization on thousands of hectares of farmland with vast irrigation networks and all year round farming as most importers need large quantities delivered on schedule. He however noted that with the Heritage Bank strategic partnership, CBN had continued to provide lot of supports through various on-lending scheme, as ABP has made visible and measurable impact especially in rice, while hoping other commodities especially grains would follow.
