Wema Bank commits N2bn for agriculture

Wema bank plc has committed N2bn in funds for farmers and other agribusiness stakeholders. To help to develop the agribusiness value chain, the bank has signed a tripartite commodity aggregation finance scheme with Cellulant Nigeria and Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc).

The N2 billion in funds is available for immediate drawdown to commodity aggregators on the Cellulant network to facilitate trade across the value chain. The partnership will also see NIRSAL provide credit risk guarantees for all borrowers in the scheme.

Cellulant owns Agrikore Marketplace, a solution-focused on digitalizing both the production and marketing segments of the Agric value chain by linking all the players from the production level to the marketing and consumption level.

Speaking at the Inaugural Partners’ Summit organized by Cellulant in Lagos,the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Wema Bank, Ademola Adebise reiterated the importance of cooperation between every player in the Agric value chain.

Addressing the subject, “Financing the Agric Value Chain to Deliver Transactional Impact to Stakeholders,” Adebise noted that “holistic interventions across the value chain are required to achieve the desired impact and outcomes in the sector.”

Adebise identified a low level of budgetary allocation, negligible financial literacy, a large percentage of unbanked population and the limited understanding of the value chain as part of the challenges facing the Agric sector.