Crusoe Osagie
The federal government has inaugurated the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) Steering Committee on the Restructuring and Recapitalisation of the Bank of Industry and the Project Delivery Team to revitalise the operations of the Bank of Agriculture.
Inaugurating the Steering Committee and Project Delivery Team on behalf of the Vice President, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who chairs the Committee, informed that the approach is to make the Bank of Agriculture more responsive to its mandate of serving as a veritable platform for providing loans to MSMEs, rural farmers, cooperatives and agro-allied industries, among others.
The minister added that the approach was preferred by the Federal Government as a pre-privatization strategy to pave way for injection of financial and other requisite resources.
“It is therefore the conviction of my Ministry that the approved restructuring and recapitalization are critical to the revitalisation of the bank’s operations, as it will enable the bank serve as a strong catalyst for achieving Government objectives”, the Minister stated.
The minister also noted that the Federal Government has charged the Steering Committee, under his chairmanship, with the mandate to midwife the laudable initiative to be implemented within a record time.
The Steering Committee will be technically supported by the Project Delivery Team, which is made up of experienced personnel drawn from key stakeholder agencies of Government.
Members of the Steering Committee are Ministers of Finance, National Planning, and Industry, Trade and Investment, Governor of Central Bank, Permanent Secretary- Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Director-General- Bureau of Public Enterprise. Others are Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Special Adviser to the Vice President on Economics, General Manager- Finance and Accounts, Bank of Agriculture, Representative of the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Sector Director, Bureau of Public Enterprise, who is the Committee’s Secretary.
Members of the Project Delivery Team, chaired by the Sector Director (DFIs), Bureau of Enterprise, are representatives of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Federal Ministry of Finance, Office of the Vice President, Central Bank of Nigeria and Bank of Agriculture. Others are Project Manager (DFIs), Bureau of Public Enterprise and the Enterprises Officer, Bank of Agriculture who is the Team’s Secretary.
