Lawmakers commend NIRSAL’s agribusiness transformation drive

Steve Agbota

The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives has commended the  Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) agribusiness transformation drive in the country.

The lawmakers who were impressed with the level of development in the organisation  commended  NIRSAL’s MD/CEO, Aliyu Abdulhameed, for his efforts to position the risk-management agency as a major driver of agricultural development in Nigeria.

Speaking during an engagement with NIRSAL’s management to clarify and share ideas on its mandate, track record and accomplishments, Chairman of the Committee, Oluwole Oke, expressed his satisfaction with the performance of NIRSAL’s Managing Director, saying it had now found a friend in the National Assembly.

However, other committee members who also spoke at the meeting described Abdulhameed as a round peg in a round hole and a man of undoubted capacity.  They also congratulated NIRSAL for its commendable performance in terms of agribusiness financing, urging other agencies to learn from NIRSAL’s rigorous processes of due diligence.

In his remarks, Abdulhameed gave members an in-depth analysis context and rationale that informed the creation of NIRSAL, its mandate and transformative achievements in Nigeria’s agribusiness space.

He explained that prior to the creation of NIRSAL, financiers were averse to lending to agriculture, citing perceived high risks in the sector, especially in the upstream segment of the agricultural value chain where primary production takes place, often referred to as the “black hole” in agriculture. He added: “In response to these concerns and as part of efforts to diversify Nigeria’s economy from crude oil-dependence, the CBN formulated NIRSAL to catalyse the flow of much-needed financing into Agriculture by redefining, measuring, re-pricing and sharing agribusiness-related credit risk with financiers.“The CBN, in its foresight, established NIRSAL as a Public Liability Company registered under the Companies and Allied Matters Act.