Ecobank extends loan to 70,000 farmers

Adebayo Obajemu

Ecobank Nigeria has announced its intention to support over 70,000 farmers with special loans to increase their capacity and yields during this planting season.

This is one of the bank’s initiatives to promote entrepreneurship in the sector and is in support of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers programmes for the 2020 wet season with the Maize Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (MAGPAMAN).

Head, Agribusiness, Ecobank Nigeria, Mojisola Oguntoyinbo, announced this in Lagos while responding to media enquiries on the participation of the bank in the CBN scheme.

According to her, the initiative spreads across the thirty-six states of the Federation and is one of the several concerted efforts on the part of the bank to support the government to create an ecosystem that gives smallholder farmers access to funding and the required support to increase food production in the country.

She also noted that the scheme is designed to connect smallholder farmers with processors and off-takers within the agriculture value chain.

“We are creating opportunities in the Agric sector that will help many smallholder farmers expand their business and become worthy employers of labour by adopting modern farming techniques for the betterment of our economy.