The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending Plc (NIRSAL) has urged stakeholders in agribusiness to support the institution to strengthen agriculture in Lagos State.
Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed, the NIRSAL’s Managing Director, made the call at the facility tour of ADT Russet, on Sunday in Apapa, Lagos.
ADT Russet Limited is a Cocoa Bean sourcing and exporting company based in Lagos State.
“I use this opportunity to request that the Lagos State Government, community leaders and private landowners align with what NIRSAL Plc is doing to make agriculture a bigger economic force in this state.
“The business foresight of Lagos is second to none in this country.
“Let NIRSAL Plc help you to exploit and maximise the abundant opportunities available to Eko in the land, water resources, labour and markets,” the managing director said.
NIRSAL Plc is a 500 million dollars Non-Bank Financial Institution and a wholly-owned corporation of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), designed to redefine, dimension, measure, re-Price and share agribusiness-related credit risk.
It was created to stimulate the flow of affordable finance and investments into the agriculture sector.
NISRAL does so by de-risking the agribusiness finance value chain, fixing agricultural value chains, building long-term capacity, and institutionalising incentives for agricultural lending.
This is done through its five strategic pillars of Risk Sharing, Insurance, Technical Assistance, Incentives and Rating.
One of the core products offered by NIRSAL for minimising the risks associated with agriculture and agribusiness finance and investments is the Credit Risk Guarantee (CRG).
The NIRSAL CRG provides comfort to financiers and investors and encourages lending to the sector by sharing up to 75 percent of credit risks.
Alongside the CRG, NIRSAL also offers interest rebates on a discretionary basis to obligors that are in good standing in terms of loan repayments under the Interest Drawback Scheme.