The Scheme is a special credit intervention fund of originally N200billion created by the Federal Government of Nigeria to fast-track the development of the agricultural sector economy by providing credit facilities to commercial agricultural enterprises at a single-digit interest rate.
The key agricultural commodities covered under the Scheme are:
- Production:
- Cash Crops: Cotton, Oil Palm, Fruit Trees. Rubber, Sugar Cane, Jatropha Curcas, and Cocoa.
- Food Crops: Rice, Wheat, Cassava, Maize/Soya, Beans/Millet, Tomatoes, and Vegetables
- Poultry: Broilers and Eggs Production
- Livestock: Meat, Dairy, and Piggery
- Aquaculture: Fingerlings and Catfish
- Processing: Feed-mills Development, Threshing, Pulverisation, and other forms of transmutation for value addition.
- Storage: Commodities, Agrochemicals, and Warehousing.
- Farm Input Supplies: Fertilizers, Seeds/Seedlings, Breeder Stock, Feeds, Farm equipment & Machinery.
- Marketing: Agricultural commodities under the focal investment areas
Features
- Single-digit interest rate (9% all-in, max).
- Single obligor limit of up to an N2billion for medium and large-scale private sector enterprises and N1billion for state governments.
- The participating private sector entity must have a minimum farm asset base of a million (excluding farmland).
- Irrevocable Standing Payment Order (ISPO) is required in the case of State Governments.
- Fund available till 2025.
- Loan tenor of up to 5 years.
Value Proposition & Gain
- Funding is provided at a cheap cost.
- The longer tenor of the loan.
- Funding targeted specific agricultural production.
Target Market
- Medium or Large Scale Commercial Farms involved in the cultivation of crops, rearing of livestock, fisheries, etc.
- Limited Liability Companies involved in agricultural production, storage, processing, marketing, and enterprise development.
- State Governments and the FCT (for on-lending/special intervention to small-scale farmers).
