Minister asks farmers to claim BOA ownership

·       Says banks agree on 9% single digit

Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh

The minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh has implored Nigerian farmers to purchase shares in the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) as the process to conclude the reform and repositioning of the financial institution which would commence before Christmas of 2018.

Chief Ogbeh added that commercial banks had also agreed to 9% single digit lending to agriculture and that the committee of bankers had communicated this through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Speaking to the gathering of agricultural tractor owners and operators in Abuja, Chief Ogbeh said that the current commercial banks interest rate of 25-30% on agriculture could not be of any economic benefits to anybody, thereby proffered the need for farmers’ bank through the buying of shares in the BOA by the time the process would commence.