The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele has approved the appointment of Mr. Aliyu Abdulhameed as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agriculture Lending (NIRSAL).
The bank in a statement on Wednesday also said the governor approved the appointment of Mr. Babajide Arowosafe as the Executive Director (Technical) of NIRSAL.
The statement said the appointment was approved after a competitive process which saw the emergence of the two executives of the agency.
It said the appointment underscores the CBN’s determination to refocus NIRSAL and help derisk agriculture lending in Nigeria.
“The bank is confident that this will help in moving the country towards food sufficiency, job creation and inclusive growth, ” it added.
In the area of lending, the statement said the apex bank had so far guaranteed a total of 454 projects valued at N61.16bn under the NIRSAL initiative
It added that the sum of N753.36m had been paid out as interest rebate to borrowers who repaid promptly to encourage good payment behavior thereby minimizing the rate of default.
It also said through the program, a total number of 24.142 farmers have been trained across the country.
NIRSAL is an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Bankers Committee and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
It was set up in designed to identify, redefine, measure, reprice and evolve strategies to derisk and catalyze lending to the Nigerian agriculture value chain.
