Heritage Bank set to strengthen support for agribusiness

Heritage Bank Plc has disclosed that plans are underway to deepen support for agriculture by giving adequate support for agribusinesses in the country.

Of particular importance to the bank is directing such stream of support to rice farmers and agribusinesses in the rice value chain. The bank also seeks to aid economic development through agriculture with direct participation Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria, which has garnered wide public acceptance.

The Group Head, Agriculture Finance, Heritage Bank, Olugbenga Awe, who in a speech at the 3rd edition of Rice Investment Summit in Abuja, reiterated the bank’s resolve to support subsistence farmers in some targeted communities, citing similar efforts in the North.

“In our quest to participate in the rice value-chain through the ABP, we supported hundreds of small holder farmers in various communities in Kaduna and Zamfara State”, he said.

Speaking at the seminar which held in collaboration with New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD), Awe described the bank’s resolve as an act of patriotism towards a common national goal of improving food production, whilst achieving food security and sufficiency.

He also disclosed that the bank’s drive to support rice production stems from the conviction that the management of the bank adjudges agribusiness as profitable with an end to achieving food security in Nigeria.

Identifying some challenges mitigating the rice value chain, Awe was quick to describe them as splinters off a plethora of constraints facing agriculture in general, citing poor accessibility to farmlands, precipaitated by poor road network and rural underdevelopment as some.

Heritage Bank, he noted, is committed to tackling these challenges head-on, as the solution to food security in Nigeria hinges on some of these challenges.

Tracing the opportunities the agribusiness portends to the pre-collapse of crude oil prices, Awe noted that the bank, through its various programmes, will actively participate in its projection for year 2020 – the production of 7.7million metric tons of milled rice or 10.8million metric tons of paddy rice at milling recovery ratio of 62 per cent.