Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja
The Development Bank of Nigeria Plc (DBN) and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) have entered into a partnership to promote lending to the agricultural sub-sector of the economy and its value chain. NIRSAL is expected to provide risk mitigating credit guarantees under the collaboration while DBN is to provide the funds for lending to MSMEs in the agricultural sub-sector and its value chain.
Both development finance institutions believe that a strategic collaboration will impact positively on agriculture and all the value chain players and thus address the concerns of financial institutions on the high risk of lending to the sector.
Speaking at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Abuja, the Managing Director of DBN, Tony Okpanachi stressed that “the Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) if well managed have the potential to achieve key macro-economic objectives of the Federal Government which include, but are not limited to job creation, poverty alleviation, financial inclusion, development of technology and so
on.”
He added that the core mandate of Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) is to alleviate financing constraints faced by the MSMEs and small corporates in Nigeria through the provision of financing and partial credit guarantees to eligible financial intermediaries on a market -conforming and on a sustainable basis.” In his remarks, NIRSAL Managing Director, Aliyu Abdulhameed, stated that ‘’NIRSAL’s primary mandate is to facilitate the flow of credit, finance and investments into agriculture and agribusiness.
‘’NIRSAL believes strategic collaborations with major stakeholders in the industry is pivotal to achieving defined and well-tailored objectives and results. It is in line with this view, that the partnership with Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) is structured. “As development finance Institutions, NIRSAL and DBN share a common goal of supporting investments that will catalyse sustainable economic growth, create more jobs and equip farmers with the capital needed to thrive in the agricultural sector,’’ he said
