Agriculture: BoA to Support SMEs with N25bn

MD, BoA, Mr. Mohammed Santuraki

James Emejo

The Managing Director, Bank of Agriculture (BoA), Mr. Mohammed Santuraki, Tuesday said that the bank would disburse about N25 billion in the next two years to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and other forms of agricultural businesses in the country.

It also emerged that the Federal Government might have hampered the development of the Abuja Securities and Commodities Exchange (ASCE) Plc by under-funding it in the past 12 years.

THISDAY learnt that only about N1.5 billion had so far been allocated to the Exchange since 2001 till date.
Santuraki also said government planned to boost agricultural production with N15 billion.

He spoke in Abuja when he led a team on a courtesy visit to the Managing Director/Chief Executive, ASCE, Mr. Yusuf Abdurrahim.
The BoA boss said the visit was aimed at complementing the activities of both organisations on how to link agricultural production to the market with emphasis on the value-chain.

Meanwhile, Abdurrahim said no single institution will be able to meet the funding demand in the agricultural sector.

He said with inadequate funding, "you don't expect a new project that is supposed to support infrastructure to take off. And that was why the present effort was put in place to revitalise the exchange; government realised it has to bring in private capital to support public capital for the exchange to be fully developed."

Both institutions are currently trying to work out a framework that would enable them float a pilot scheme to serve as a model for merchants, with the objective of gaining confidence from local processors.

The ASCE Boss said:"It's a good effort by the bank and we welcome it-and if you look at the enthusiasm that the Managing Director and his team came with, trying to accomplish an implementable strategy within the next 30 days, you would see that a lot of Nigerians have realised that one key economic infrastructure that can move this economy, which we are lacking is commodity exchange because the commodity exchange can give you a capacity which is ten-fold of presently what the Nigerian Stock Exchange is giving you."