MONEY MATTERS NIRSAL: Unity Bank to disburse N100bn to farmers

Unity Bank management says it plans to disburse up to N100 billion out of the N500 billion earmarked by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the Anchor Borrower Scheme under the Nigerian Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), using the bank as a channel partner.

According to the bank’s Head, Agribusiness, Mr. Olugbenga Emmanuel Adelana, ensure farmers have access to the fund, Unity Bank has developed a product called ‘NIRSAL Farmers Savings Account’, specifically designed as a platform to execute a key aspect of the service level agreement for farmers in the rural areas.

He said a total of seven states, Kebbi, Jigawa, Zamfara, Adamawa, Kaduna, Kano and Bauchi and over 9,000 small holder farmers have signed onto the scheme when the pilot of the Channel Partnership Agreement (CPA) first came on stream.

In its bid to strongly drive its strategic business focus on rural economy,

Adelana said NIRSAL was borne out of the CBN’s efforts to increase disbursement of the anchor borrower funds to more farmers at the grassroots level and the product was conceived to expand and capture more states of the federation.

According to Adelana, a Memorandum of Understanding and service level agreement on the implementation of the Channel partnership has been approved and signed by Unity Bank and NIRSAL.