AGRIC FINANCE AND TRACTOR WORLD

USAID supports Nigeria’s agriculture sector with $600m yearly

2017-02-01T13:00:00.001+00:00

The United States Agency for International Development’s office in Nigeria, on Tuesday announced that it supported the development of Nigeria’s agriculture sector with $600m (about N183bn) annually.

USAID’s Mission Director in Nigeria, Mr. Michael Harvey, made the announcement in on the sidelines the inauguration of a new agricultural private sector partnership in Lagos.

Harvey said that the U.S. government was committed to providing technical and financial assistance that would expand opportunities for Nigeria’s small-holder farmers.

He said, “The most important sector that we have got to get right in Nigeria, is the agriculture sector.

“Let me say that the United States Government supports Nigeria’s agriculture sector development with $600m every year.

“And this is really a huge investment that the U.S. is committed to.”

The U.S. official said that with Nigeria’s increasing population, the new partnership with Chi Farms and Niji Foods would boost Nigeria’s efforts at achieving food security.

According to him, public-private partnerships are a proven way of expanding investment in agriculture, improving efficiency and productivity.”

The Oyo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, Mr. Oyewole Oyewumi, said that Nigeria was consuming about
two million metric tons of fish yearly.

Oyewumi said that it was imperative for Nigeria to develop her agriculture, especially now, that the consumers of crude oil had resorted to the use of alternative energy sources.

He said, “It is necessary that we accord agriculture, especially food production, its rightful place in this country.

“We are all witnesses to the unfolding scenario all over the world, where developed countries, who are the main consumers of our crude oil, are now exploring alternative energy sources.

“This is a signal that Nigeria, should step up its agricultural production, as a matter of National emergency.”

NAN

Africa Resilience Forum: AfDB President lays out blueprint for dealing with fragility

2017-01-12T09:07:00.001+00:00

AgroNigeria News

African countries will need innovative partnerships and a mix of small-scale and big transformational projects to build resilience and overcome fragility, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina told the Africa Resilience Forum on Tuesday in Abidjan.

Adesina announced that the Bank has created a bottom-up initiative to deliver the Bank’s development priorities – the High 5s –– in 10,000 communities in fragile situations in 1,000 days. “It requires innovative partnerships to scale up existing technologies in these environments. One such technology is present with us here in the room: Abze develops low-cost solar lighting that could be brought to rural communities in fragile situations through a concerted partnership effort,” he told the audience.

The Africa Resilience Forum aims to strengthen partnerships that go beyond aid coordination to effectively build resilience at community, country and regional levels. The Bank’s understanding of fragility has evolved to a universal risk concept where it is considered “a condition of elevated risk of institutional breakdown, societal collapse or violent conflict.”

“Fragility is neither constrained by any geographical setting, nor is it bound by time,” said Adesina. “Countries, therefore, experience varying intensities of fragility and duration, in some cases manifesting as pockets of fragility.”

The Bank’s commitment to building resilience is also reflected in its resource allocation. Since its inception in 2008, the Transition Support Facility has mobilized more than US $3.63 billion (UA 2.7 billion*) in additional resources. The share of these additional concessional resources for fragile situations has steadily increased, most recently from 13% (US $888.60 million or UA 661 million) under the 13th Replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF-13) to 17% (US $955.82 million or UA 711 million) under the Fund’s 14thReplenishment (ADF-14).

The High 5s are part of the AfDB’s resilience agenda for Africa. Energy remains a critical part of the agenda. It helps fight fragility in the context of large-scale and uncontrolled urbanization. For instance, since 2010, the Kenyan Government has improved the electricity supply in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, as part of a programme that targets the areas of greatest social inequality. “Providing electricity and modern fuels in marginalized areas lowers the risk of internal unrest and reduces the movement of people across borders. This is why the Bank will be investing US $12 billion in the energy sector over the next ten years,” Adesina said.

Agriculture is also part of the solution. Developing agricultural value chains means strengthening relationships between different groups of the society, critically important in fragile situations where trust and social cohesion are low, while overcoming inequalities by connecting different geographical parts of a country. “We know that agricultural value chains work even in the absence of a functioning state, diversifying economies, raising incomes, increasing food security and thereby contributing to mitigating conflict,” he noted. He cited examples of successful value chain projects in fragile situations, ranging from Northern Uganda (cotton), South Sudan (shea nut), Rwanda (coffee) to Somalia (livestock). The Bank will be investing US $24 billion in this sector

The private sector will be one of the key players to drive this agenda. For instance, in spite of Somalia’s central government vacuum, domestic and foreign private sector have found ways to prosper in Somaliland by developing their own business environment, identifying and responding to market needs and gaps. The private sector role becomes ever more important, once countries transition out of fragility, stabilizing the economy and society and creating much-needed jobs, as can be seen in Cote d’Ivoire.

Adesina noted that of Africa’s nearly 420 million youth, one-third are unemployed and discouraged, another third are vulnerably employed, and only one in six is in meaningful wage employment. “It is not possible to imagine a resilient Africa with hundreds of millions of youth unemployed,” he said. “This is why we have launched the Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy that will create 25 million jobs and reach over 50 million Africans by 2025 with a special focus on those in fragile situations.”

***This post originally appeared on AfDB’s official website. Read original post here: https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/article/africa-resilience-forum-afdb-president-lays-out-blueprint-for-dealing-with-fragility-16624/ ***

AFDB APPROVES $9M EQUITY INVESTMENT FOR AGRICULTURAL SMES IN NIGERIA

2016-09-07T13:13:00.001+01:00

Agro Nigeria online

The African Development Bank has approved a $9 million equity investment in the Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria (FAFIN) to provide expansion capital to agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

FAFIN is a first-generation private equity fund that provides financial, capacity-building and technical assistance to commercially viable SMEs in the Nigerian agribusiness sector, through a unique value chain-centric approach, and using a combination of equity, quasi-equity and convertible loan instruments. FAFIN implements its strategy and constructs its portfolio through a bifocal lens consisting of the twin objectives of competitive financial returns and measurable positive social impact.

The Fund is jointly sponsored by the German KfW Development Bank and the Government of Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD).

The project is expected to deliver strong development outcomes from household benefits and employment through the creation of a large number of jobs and the provision of certain agricultural products; positive gender and social effects through the implementation of out-grower schemes and supporting rural development; and private sector development through alleviation of financial constraints faced by agribusinesses and enhancing agricultural value chains.

The project’s contribution to inclusive growth is expected to be significant, given the large numbers of jobs to be created and out-growers to be reached at the level of sub-projects. Its contribution to green growth is expected to be low, because the Fund targets the agribusiness sector with some expected negative effects on the environment.

The Fund’s primary focus will be on SMEs across the agricultural value chain with crop value chain and geographic diversification. It aims at fixing broken value chains to increase efficiencies, reduce post-harvest loss, and increase smallholder farmer incomes and SME agribusiness profitability.

Investment instruments will be primarily quasi-equity (convertible bonds, preference shares and structured royalties) and direct equity. The ticket size ranges from $500, 000 to $ 5 million.

The Fund is aligned with the Bank’s Ten Year Strategy focusing on inclusive growth, strengthening agriculture and food security, and access to local SME finance; which is encapsulated in the Bank’ High Five Development Agenda for Africa, specifically Feed Africa and Industrialise Africa. It is also in line with the Bank’s Strategy for Agricultural Transformation in Africa (2016-2025), Strategy on Jobs for Youth in Africa (2016-2025) and the Bank’s Country Strategy Paper for Nigeria (2013-2017), which supports an enabling environment for agriculture.

This is a press statement issued by AFDB.

World Bank supports agricultural sector with $50m

2016-08-23T16:20:00.000+01:00

PM NEWS

The World Bank has pledged to support Nigeria’s agricultural sector with 50 million dollars towards the restoration of agricultural livelihood of Fadama beneficiaries in the North East.

Dr Adetunji Oredipe, Task Team Leader of the Fadama III project, disclosed on Thursday in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the programme would last up until December 2019.

He said the programme had begun in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Taraba, Gombe and Yobe states.

Oredipe disclosed that Borno, Yobe and Taraba had released their N20 million counterpart fund, while the three other states had given approval for payment.

He said that the bank had launched a special programme of Fadama for the North East towards actualising the programme.

Oredipe said that actualising the programme had become imperative because the bank was determined to help to restore livelihood in the region.

“We want to reach out to 24,000 households and we have the package for them as you know most of them have lost everything.

He said that the programme would be done in stages and there is a budget for every community where the bank is intervening.

“The third leg is that we are giving food assistance to farmers that we are going to work with because if you don’t provide food assistance the tendency that when you bring seedlings or fertilisers they will sell it.

Oredipe noted that it is inimical to health and food production when farmers cooked seeds instead of normal grains.

He said in this regard, Fadama would support every family with a small quantity worth 200 dollars, just to help them within the period while they were waiting for their harvest.

The coordinator revealed that damaged irrigation facilities, abandoned roads that might have lost shape would be upgraded by supporting them with water lifting devices.

Oredipe said that there was an adequate budget for every household while the bank facilitators were on the field working with NGOs who are familiar with the terrain to map out farms and other facilities.

“We are not engaging in trial and error, we are working with experts who are familiar with the environment so we can move quickly as the sense of urgency is there.

“Every community will prepare a community action plan for the team to work with since we have a budget,’’ he said.

Oredipe disclosed further that 25,000 dollars had been set aside for each community as intervention fund.

“In that community they will have to sit together and put facilities that are relevant but are not functioning we have roads to fix, we have irrigation facilities.

“So, based on the consensus, they have all agreed on and identify 40 households with farmlands.

“It is a straightforward package that we have learnt from the earlier phase of the project to be able to make a quick intervention that can yield a very good result,” he said.

He said that the main objective of the project for the North East was to increase the incomes for users of rural lands and water resources within the Fadama areas in a sustainable manner throughout the recipient’s territory.

Oredipe explained that the programme would also focus on improving farm productivity and performance of clusters of farmers engaged in priority food staples.

Lokpobiri Assures Nigerians of Bumper Harvest.

2016-07-12T12:04:00.001+01:00

Lokpobiri Assures Nigerians of Bumper Harvest.

Source: Agro News Nigeria

The Minister of State for Agriculture, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, on Monday gave an assurance that the country would have sufficient food in the next harvest season

Lokpobiri the assurance while speaking with State House correspondents after he led a foreign agro-investor, Wells –San Carlos Agro Farms Ltd., on a courtesy visit to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The attributed the current high cost of foodstuff due to the lack of investment in agriculture in 2015 due to the change in government.

“That is why you are seeing a scarcity of rice and the price has gone up to about N25,000 a bag.

“But this year, the President (Buhari) has given us all the support we have requested to see how we can support farmers the little way we can.

“So that we can give people access to credit, fertiliser and seed to grow sufficiently for our own consumption and export.’’
The minister also noted that the dependence of other West African countries on Nigeria had also contributed to the high cost of foodstuff in the country.

“Everybody is focused on Nigeria because we have the best soil and we believe that with the president’s determination, our agenda in agriculture will be able to produce enough rice to feed ourselves and satisfy the regional needs.

On the nation’s rice programme, the minister said that the ambition of the administration was to be self-sufficient in rice production by 2018/2019.

According to him many programmes have been put in place including the `Anchor Growers’ Scheme’ in Kebbi State.
Lokpkobiri added that the Federal Government had set up a task force headed by the Kebbi governor to multiply rice and wheat production.

“We are also trying to create some funds to see how people can borrow the way Kebbi people borrowed to cultivate over 1,000 hectares.

“This is so that we can produce as much as we can and satisfy our local needs by 2018/2019.’’
On the visit of the Mexican investors, he said it was to further encourage the company which has plans to cultivate about 9,000 hectares.

“They are already doing and installing about 30 hectares of green houses and as at today, they are employing about 600 people.
He said the firm was one of the leading farmers in the world and had come to Nigeria to partner the government to see how it could create commercial farms in Nigeria.

“It is not only to satisfy our local market but also to export, so that we can also substitute in agro dollars the petro dollars and also to create jobs.

“This farm alone is going to create about 85,000 jobs.

“We are trying to see how we can encourage Nigerians to go into farming in collaboration with those who will bring their technology.

“This is to ensure that we achieve our objectives in agriculture and food sufficiency in the shortest time possible,’’ he added.
Also speaking, the Executive Director, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr Olusegun Awolowo, described the investment as

“the kinds of transformational export projects that the country is looking for now”.
He said that the country was shopping for large-scale commercial farms such as the Wells –San Carlos group, adding that its 9,000 hectares would be the first export farm for the NEPC.

“This is not the two-hectare or three-hectare programme; we need the large commercial farms because that is the only thing that can solve our problems.

“Now we would win import substitution and then we now export, feed the nation and provide employment.’’
Awolowo invited the private sector to embrace commercial agriculture because of its high revenue yield through export.

The Chairman, Wells – San Carlos Agro Farms Ltd., Capt. Idahosa Okunbo, told correspondents that the first 9,000-hectare farm was being cultivated in Edo with another 20,000 green house project already in operation.

“This is a veritable project that will employ our youths; it will also create the relevant foreign exchange that we need.

“We need the government support because this is the way that we can overcome the dependence on oil, and our farm, if replicated in the six geopolitical zones, will take away youths from the street and earn us foreign exchange.

“It is a double edged advantage for the country and something that we can encourage as a legacy project,’’ Okunbo said

Samples of Tractors

2015-10-19T16:48:00.000+01:00

SALVAGED, USED SAAB AUCTION

SAAB CARS DESIGNS

SAAB MUSEUM