Uche Usim, Abuja
The Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) on Tuesday disclosed that it has facilitated N101 billion loan from commercial banks to buoy 693 agricultural projects across the country since it was incorporated in 2013 by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Managing Director, NIRSAL, Aliyu Abdulhameed, gave this figure in Abuja while presenting a paper at the National Project Management Conference (promacon),with theme, “Accelerating national development through project management best practices,”.
The NIRSAL boss in his presentation titled “Project management as a catalyst for national development,” explained that the N101 billion guaranteed by NIRSAL, generated 400,000 jobs within the agricultural value chains.
He said the agency had also launched the Area Yield Index Insurance Products which had protected about N6.5bn revenue of over 37,399 farmers.
While underscoring the importance of project management to national development, Abdulhameed said the agency was able to achieve all these through the implementation of sound project management techniques.
He gave some of the benefits of adopting sound project management practice to include increase agric productivity, minimal materials wastage, reduction in labour costs and improvements on cashflow.
The Programme Director, National Project Management Conference. Mr Taopheek Babayeju, in his address of welcome said that conference which began a decade ago had indeed germinated to define the practice of project management in Nigeria.
He said there is an intricate linkage between development and project management, adding that it is this tool that the developed nations and successful organisations have used to achieve developmental and business results.
He said, “Studies have shown that organisations that have adopted project management in driving their initiatives have succeed more, no wonder why many organisations both in the public and private sector, local and international now set up Project Management Offices to support their Strategy Units.
“The change that we desire as a nation will not come from government but from ordinary people by doing our own little bit to bring about the change we want to see.”
He described the conference as a platform designed for every practitioners and professionals, irrespective of their body of knowledge, methodology and affiliation.
The Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive, National Bureau of Statistics, Dr Yemi Kale, said the concept of project management is vital for economic development.
He said, “In every area of our lives, the importance of project management is vital.
“Most of the challenges that we face in Nigeria is lack of proper project management. If we take what we do more seriously and put in the principles of project management, our country would have improved more today.
“If we do the right things at the right time for the right reasons, our country would be great and this is one of those things that we need to do to make Nigeria great.”