NIRSAL commences assessment of banks, states on agric financing

The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has activated its Rating and Incentive pillars as part of its broad mandate to fix broken agricultural value chains.

NIRSAL’s Rating Facility seeks to assess the performance of key stakeholders such as financial Institutions and state governments on the effectiveness of their agricultural policies and programmes. The first phase of this Ratings exercise is targeted at Banks, Insurance Companies and State Governments.

A statement from the agency said the pilot phase of the exercise commenced on May 13, 2019, with six financial Institutions - Stanbic Bank IBTC, Ecobank, Sterling Bank, AIICO Insurance, AXA Mansard and LAPO Microfinance Banks - which have expressed interest in participation.

It said at least three state governments would also be assessed during this pilot phase. The results of the pilot phase will be used to design a comprehensive roll-out of the Ratings Programme for all interested stakeholders.