Rabat – A Moroccan and Nigerian banks are joining forces to boost sustainable agriculture in the two African countries.
Credit Agricole (CAM), a Moroccan banking group, and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing for Agriculture Lending (NIRSAL) inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Friday. The deal aims to promote sustainable agriculture activities in both countries, according to a Nisal statement reported by the Nigerian news website The Guardian.
The MoU looks to boost sustainable agriculture activities by easing access to finance and investment to all the players within the agriculture value chain and making sure that smallholders are not excluded, said Anne Ihugba, Nirsal’s Head of Corporate Communication.
With the new MoU, the two parties are committed to actively seeking and implementing profit-generating, agriculture-oriented projects that would benefit the two countries.
Commenting on the signing of the MoU, Managing Director/CEO of Nirsal, Aliyu Abdulhameed, explained that the Nigerian bank is currently looking to expand its customer base and diversify its product offering to provide financing tools that would serve the season-based agriculture.
The new lines of products would also tackle the issue of underbanked small farmers given the many issues they face while trying to secure bank loans, Abdulhameed added.
The Nigerian CEO further pointed out that innovative financing products are key to addressing the specific needs of farmers and ensuring enhanced financial inclusivity within the sector.
Nirsal’s operations in Nigeria managed to inject capital of N152.8 billion into the agriculture sector in the past six years, the CEO said.
“A pacesetter in the modern, innovative use of blended finance to spur the growth of agriculture, has been a reference point for emerging Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) across Sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
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