NEXIM Bank promises more funding to cash crops

The Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM) said it will provide more funding support to cash crops with capability of yielding huge foreign exchange.

The Acting MD/CEO, Mr Bashir Wali made the disclosed this when the House Committee on Banking and Finance and NEXIM Bank management visited Ladgroup Shea Butter Factory in Ogun State,a statement from NEXIM said.

Ladgroup is an indigenous conglomerate with a state of the art Oil Mill Extraction factory, which is the largest Shea Nut processing factory in Africa, with an intake capacity of 40,000 Metric tons per annum. NEXIM Bank had in 2015 financed Ladgroup Limited operations with $5,786,163.

“The facility was made up of Equipment Finance of $2,786,163.00 and Working Capital Facility of $3,000,000.00 and has enabled the Company to purchase and install a Shea Butter Refining Unit, a step down transformer and augment its working capital base,” Wali said.

He said “the interest of NEXIM Bank in Shea Nut processing for export was borne out of the very high demand for Shea Butter with the impressive potentials for foreign exchange revenue stream as well as massive job creation at various levels of its value chain.”

Citing available statistics, Wali said nearly 2 billion Shea trees grow naturally on parklands in 21 African countries stretching from Senegal to South Sudan with more than 16,000,000 women living in rural communities individually collecting the fresh fruits and the kernel.

Responding to concerns on the viability of the Bank’s intervention, Wali stated that the global demand for Shea Butter is worth about $10billion and is projected to be more than $30billion by 2020, hence the interest of NEXIM in providing funding for increased proactive measures.