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Uche Usim, Abuja
In a strategic effort to guarantee food security in the country, Sterling Bank Plc said it is partnering a commodity exchange, AFEX and a digital platform known as Binkabi, to ensure farmers’ produce are moved to storage and sold as and when due to mitigate yearly losses put at $9 billion by the World Bank. The fusion of the three companies gave birth to a product called SABEX.
Abubakar Suleiman, the managing director of the bank who made the disclosure in Abuja at the weekend, said the bank understood the importance of agriculture to the diversification of the Nigeria economy, against which it had committed about N55billion in the last seven years to the sector.
He said the partnership will help strengthen Nigeria’s agriculture value chain by ensuring farmers access financing to boost their businesses.
Suleiman added that farmers can also widen their production base as the fear of post-harvest losses, which usually discouraged them from expanding their frontiers, has been substantially addressed by SABEX.
He said: “The bank went into partnership with AFEX commodities exchange and digital platform called Binkabi, which is based on block chain operations. What they have delivered is a way to decentralise commodity trading and reduce intermediation in trade, while distributing profits more widely across the value chain. The platform will be able to tokenise commodities and cash, so that the two can be exchanged instantly irrespective of where the farmer is located.
“Based on that, they can access financial services like bank loan either to buy inputs, sell when the time is right or essentially continue to live their lives.
“To get on the platform, prospective players have to link their bank accounts with Sterling Bank, or any other partner banks. They will be directed to provide some more details about themselves and their businesses before they can start trading.
“The biggest gain is avoiding the post-harvest losses farmers usually suffer because farmers are compelled to sell their produce cheaply and immediately after harvest”, he explained.
