The Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL PLC), in collaboration with MTN Nigeria and Successory Nigeria Ltd, has launched a business school for farmers.
Known as the NIRSAL Farmers’ Business School (NFBS), the school will operate on a mobile learning platform that is based on Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology.
NBFS will provide convenient, bespoke training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) to Nigeria’s Smallholder Farmers (SHFs), who crave improved access to vital information, which is critical to the success of primary production cycles.
NIRSAL believes that rural farmers have limited or no access to vital information on best practices, finance availability, growth management and the needs of the market.
As a result, NIRSAL PLC, in conjunction with MTN Nigeria and Successory Nigeria Ltd, has agreed to provide support mechanisms that plug information gaps, boost entrepreneurial capacities and improve access to commercial finance.
In a chat with reporters at the end of the launch in Abuja, the Managing Director/CEO of NIRSAL PLC, Mr. Aliyu Abdulhameed, assured farmers that the platform would not be too sophisticated and expensive for some rural farmers to use.
Mr. Adekunle Adebiyi, the chief sales distribution officer of MTN Nigeria, said MTN is a natural collaborator in initiatives that meaningfully connect, inform and educate Nigerians.
The Acting Director of Corporate Communications of the CBN, Mr. Osita Nwanisobi, hailed NIRSAL PLC and its partners for the initiative and urged the press to drive its uptake nationally for the good of all.
