international financing, is to ensure that our rural farmers are given access to finance,” he said.
He recalled that in last administration, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had to be involved in getting the rural farmers access finance.
“You know the Nigerian financial institutions were not interested in giving access to finance to our rural farmers, basically because they believe agriculture is not a business and they believe they cannot quickly get profit out of that.
“So, in the last administration, the government had to involve the CBN through the Anchor Borrowers scheme to ensure that our rural farmers are having access to finance.
“With this international financing investment, I think it will add value to what is existing in Nigeria to ensure that our rural farmers get access to finance, get capacity, get knowledge of modern agriculture,’’ he said.
The senator said it is important for farmers to understand that agriculture is a business.
“We need to build their capacity in order to ensure that they reap maximum benefit in what they do.
“So that it does not stop just at subsistence farming that we do only during the rainy season but that will be an all year round funding for our rural farmers and once you engage rural communities, of course, the economy will improve the gross domestic product of the country will improve.”
