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Uche Usim, Abuja
The Nigerian Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) is partnering the German Agribusiness Alliance (GAA) in its strategic efforts to deepen agribusiness in the country.
Speaking on Thursday in Abuja at a NIRSAL-German Agribusiness Alliance meeting, the Managing Director of NIRSAL, Mr Abdulhameed Aliyu said the agency has achieved significant progress with the alliance by identifying, establishing and leveraging invaluable partnerships for the achievement of its objectives and the realisation of mutual benefits.
According to him, the partnership will have an enormous impact in Nigeria’s rural communities, given that upstream segment of the agricultural value chain is dominated by smallholders in rural areas.
He added that with the pull and push vibrations in the upstream segment, input providers in the pre-upstream, and produce takers in the midstream and downstream will also be impacted by this and other partnerships that boost primary production.
Aliyu said: “This partnership with GAA is one of such significant collaborations that will strengthen the bilateral relations between Nigeria and Germany towards promoting sustainable investments in Nigeria.
“As an organization, we recognize the importance of strategic partnerships as a sine qua non in boosting the success of agriculture and agribusinesses, providing the capitals that our people need to improve their livelihoods.
“In line with this approach, a partnership with the German Agribusiness Alliance and by extension, German agribusinesses, has been identified as a potential strategic leverage for obtaining invaluable benefits for NIRSAL and Nigeria towards the establishment of agro-industrial projects.
“This engagement with GAA will also serve as a platform for the pooling and exchanging of economic ideas and interests around agriculture and agribusiness.
“Through this strategic partnership, NIRSAL will be able to leverage on the GAA’s global network in supporting the agriculture/agribusiness sector by attracting investments into Nigeria.
“NIRSAL will continue to source, identify and enter into partnerships that improve its relevance to Nigeria and Nigerians. Endowed with vast arable lands, adequate rainfall and sunshine, and a huge market, it imperative that finance, technology and equipment capitals required to completely revive the agriculture sector are sought at home and abroad”, he explained.
Aliyu further pointed out that the agency has found some of what Nigeria needs to achieve food security, job creation and economic growth in Germany, adding that the journey to the next level in agribusiness for Nigeria has gained traction.
“NIRSAL is a US$500 million non-bank financial institution and a wholly-owned corporation of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) designed to redefine, dimension, measure, re-Price and share agribusiness-related credit risks.
“The company was created to stimulate the flow of affordable finance and investments into the agricultural sector by de-risking the agribusiness finance value chain, fixing agricultural value chains, building long-term capacity, and institutionalizing incentives for agricultural lending through its five (5) strategic pillars namely: Risk Sharing, Insurance, Technical Assistance, Incentives and Rating”, he explained.
