CBN, IFAD reward 60 banks over rural financing

The Central Bank of Nigeria and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have recognised 60 microfinance banks in the country for providing financial services to the “financially excluded rural poor”.

The 60 banks are mainly from 12 states implementing the Rural Financial Institution Building programme (RUFIN).

RUFIN is a $ 40-million loan agreement between the federal government and IFAD designed to strengthen smallholder farmers’ access to financial services in order to lift the rural poor out of poverty.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who was represented by the director of agribusiness in the ministry, Dr. Abdul’azeez Muyiwa, said the interest of the current administration was to ensure that most rural people were taken out of poverty.

Mr. Uji Musa Amenju, a deputy director in the Development Finance Department of the CBN, who represented the apex bank, said since 2010 when RUFIN started, it had been able to revive the financial life of the rural people by empowering microfinance institutions to extend finances to businessmen.