AFAN set up Micro-finance Bank says chairman

·         Asks for 20B naira for wheat productivity

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kano state chapter has set up a Micro-Finance Bank (MFB) that will meet the financial needs of farmers at a single digit loan just as the wants the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to extend these loan opportunity to wheat productivity in Nigeria.

The chairman of the Association,  Mallam Farouk Mudi told Food Farm News in his office at Kano.

Mallam Mudi disclosed that the Association has set up a MFB worth over N200m  in partnership with a Women Development Bank (WDB), saying that AFAN was having the largest share in the bank.

Mudi said that the bank would help to give out loan support to men, women and youth farmers in the state stressing that support to agriculture should not be left for Government alone, but rather should as well be shouldered by the Association and other state holders in the sector.  

He pointed that the bank's loan would be made available in a single digit as against the commercial banks’ practice of two across the country saying that the MFB has commenced operation in January this year adding it is hopeful the bank would add value to the sector in the state.

Also, Mallam Faruk advocated for N20b loan through the CBN for the productivity of wheat on 100,000 hectares saying this would checkmate one trillion naira annually expended in its importation from both Russia and America. He said this would create about one million jobs across the value chains of the crop .

He commended the CBN Anchor Borrower Programme (ABP) for its helpful role to farmers, but decried people calling for the stoppage of the programme based on loan repayment which he described as not being a total failure saying it has helped farmers to be able to invest on rice productivity.  

Faruk stressed that the support gotten from the FG has enabled farmers to produce more food to an extend that prices were now crashing down saying  ‘’ the price of bean per a bowl at N800 last year is now N400, the price of wheat last year is N30, 000 and above for a bag, but with the recent 7.5 increase in production this year the price has crashed to NN18, 000. The price of 100kg of maize last year was N15, 000, but this year the price has crashed to N7, 000 while the price of Sorghum last year was N18, 000, but this year the price has crashed to N8000. Same happened to the price of soybean last year as N23, 000-N30, 000, but this year the price has crashed to N12, 000-N14, 000. 

Except the price of poultry which the association is currently working on to see how it can be reduced having crashed the price of raw materials such as Soybeans and maize’’

The chairman further disclosed that as a part of plan of the Association to ensuring that more productivity is achieved, the use of mechanization will be employed to ease the farming activities of farmers in the new farming season saying that instead of the usual N30,000 being spent by farmers for tilling, only N6,000.00 would be spent on tractor as the government has handed over 100,000 tractors to the association to oversee as tractor hiring services.