In order to boost the agro-allied economy, Stanbic IBTC Bank stepped up offer goods and services

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

The Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc has stepped up its efforts to offer financial goods and services to companies in the agro-allied sector.

The bank’s desire to grow and support Nigeria’s agriculture and agro-allied industrial sector is in line with the product development agenda.

Sustainable development is largely dependent on the agro-allied sectors. The agricultural industry is essential for creating jobs, bolstering the economies of farming communities, and ensuring the availability of food and nourishment.

Wole Oshin, Head, Agribusiness, Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC, stated that creating a thriving agro-allied sector that can sustain significant firm development and employment was essential to Nigeria’s goal of fast and inclusive economic growth.

Wole emphasized that Stanbic IBTC provided a range of financing facilities for the agricultural industry that help value chain participants flourish.

“The offered credit facilities are targeted at agricultural businesses to meet the short- to medium-term financial requirements of growers, processors, distributors, and other value chain participants for crops and livestock. The loans offer farmers and agribusinesses revolving working capital (to fulfill daily operational demands and buy inputs like seeds, fertilizer, and raw materials) and equipment finance solutions, according to Wole.

He cites the availability of gap funding for unforeseen financial demands, maintenance of cash flow, and flexibility of payback periods based on the type of funding as other advantages of the Stanbic IBTC agricultural finance. He continued by saying that the facility was also adaptable and could be used to finance vehicles, farming equipment, and small and medium-sized company (SMEs) resources.

Wole further said that through providing free capacity-building sessions to SMEs in the sector, Stanbic IBTC had stepped up its efforts to strengthen the agro-allied sector, noting that most of the workshops assisted in teaching SME owners on important business skills.

Wole said that Stanbic IBTC Bank also offered agricultural firms finance options to meet their needs for the availability of funds to buy mechanized farming equipment as well as the improvement of seasonal cash flow for industrial production.

“Stanbic IBTC, for example, pledged 50 billion to start a national agriculture finance program. In order to promote agricultural production and modernization, the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) and signed a memorandum of agreement.

Stanbic IBTC has pledged these monies, according to Wole, for the launch of the scheme. As evidence of the financial institution’s efforts to promote inclusive economic growth through agriculture, the first phase of the program is expected to improve thousands of lives by creating jobs and increase the profits of farmers and businesses in the agro-allied sector.

He said that Stanbic IBTC expected the program to boost agricultural productivity, diversify the source of income, and give the manufacturing sector essential resources and raw materials. According to him, the concept of offering financial assistance to the agricultural and agro-allied industries as a means of accelerating economic growth is slowly but surely gaining traction.

Since these sectors are well-positioned to spur rapid entrepreneurial development in Nigeria, Wole said that Stanbic IBTC “understands that investing the agro-allied industries is a definite method to diversify the Nigerian economy.”

Wide-ranging effects on the micro and macro economies will result from increasing small farmers’ and agro-based businesses’ access to loans at low interest rates. Economic development depends critically on how the agricultural sector develops. Recognizing this, Stanbic IBTC is purposefully creating programs and alliances that benefit participants in the industry.