Firm begins N415m tractor financing prog
Heifer International, a firm in the agribusiness value chain, has disclosed that it is investing $1 million (about N415m) on a tractor financing programme in Nigeria.
The programme, which is in collaboration with a tractor booking platform, Hello Tractor, is to provide loans for tractor purchases to smallholder farmers which will be repaid from revenues earned by leasing the tractors to local farmers.
Speaking at the unveiling of the tractors in Abuja on Thursday, Senior Vice President of Africa Programmes at Heifer International, Adesuwa Ifedi, said the programme was launched to seek innovative ways to generate agri-business opportunities for young Nigerian entrepreneurs.
She said the programme, christened: “Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) Tractor Financing for Increased Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria”, had already enabled tractor purchases in Abuja, Nasarawa and Enugu.
Ms Ifedi said, “Sometimes referred to as ‘Uber for tractors’, Hello Tractor offers software and tracking devices that allow farmers to book tractor services from local tractor owners via a mobile phone app.”
She noted that globally there were roughly 200 tractors per 100 square kilometres of agriculture lands, but that in sub-Saharan Africa there were only about 27, which she said illustrated a mechanisation deficit that had a significant impact on farm productivity and local economies in a region where most people depended on small-holder farming for income.
An official of the ministry of agriculture, Engr Ibrahim
Abubakar, who represented the minister, acknowledged that access to mechanisation for small-holder farmers had been one of the challenges for the ministry.
He said, “With the new initiative launched by Heifer International, it will go a long way in bridging the farming mechanisation gap in the country, which is in line with the federal government’s economic diversification plan in the agricultural sector.”