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By Chinyere Anyanwu
The umbrella body of farmers across the country, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), and Africa Rural Infrastructure Development Company (AFRIDECO) have partnered to provide a dedicated helpline to provide farmers with rapid response and improve their agricultural productivity. At the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) by both parties recently in Abuja, challenges of insecurity and poor access to information which have continued to stifle the growth of Nigeria’s agricultural sector, giving rise to skyrocketing food prices across the country, were highlighted.
The National President of AFAN, Kabir Ibrahim, noted that, “the farmers’ data issue has generated so much controversy and elicited the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari,” adding that earlier claims of data capture by the ministry did not pass any stringent test. “We have proved that it was all a charade to defraud Nigerians,” he said.
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AFAN had earlier written to President Buhari, urging him to re-examine the expenditure of N2.7 billion incurred by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to capture six million people without AFAN’s input. Under the MoA, AFAN will facilitate a comprehensive farmers data, BVN, telephony and other benefits at zero cost to AFAN.
In his remarks, AFRIDECO team lead, Mr. Abba Sayyadi Ruma, noted that the digitisation of agriculture in Nigeria will entrench an effective agriculture information management System, beginning with database for farmers supported by free digital value-added services to cover agent banking, agric extension, security, healthcare and e-commerce.
The partnership will aid in closing the gap in training and capacity development of new generation of farmers complete with access to finance from existing windows not fully harnessed by AFAN, including Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) targeting 600,000 youths, community policing (women and youths) 400,000 jobs initiative, coupled with CBN’s Accredited Agriculture Development Programme (AAD) targeting 10,000 in each state.
