HortiNigeria, a horticultural interventionist organization yesterday launched a financial linkage initiative designed to enhance farmers productivity in Kaduna state.
The initiative tagged ‘Boosting Financial Access’ is anchored at empowering 55 farmers including value chain actors across nine local government areas of the state.
At the opening of the seven days sensitization training for the farmers, Agribusiness Coordinator, HortiNigeria, Mr. Danjuma Makama explained the initiative was part of continuous effort to the NGO to enhancing agricultural productivity and sustainability in Kaduna State.
Mr. Makama reminded the financial access training is being conducted for comprehensive awareness and understanding for producer organizations in Kubau, Soba, Ikara, Makarfi, Kudan, Sabon Gari and Zaria LGA’s in Kaduna state.
According to him,” The training is aimed at bolstering financial access and insurance uptake for 55 Producer Organizations (POs) and Agribusiness Cluster (ABC) actors in Kaduna.
“Over the course of 7 days (22nd-29th April 2024), producer groups and actors within the program value chain (tomatoes, pepper, onions, cabbage, as well as transporters and aggregators etc.) will be broadened by service providers to facilitating seamless linkage to finance.
Ikechukwu Chiaka, the inclusive finance lead in HortiNigeria, told journalists that the sensitization will enable the beneficiaries to acquit to necessary knowledge in all that it entails to being bankable.
” This workshop is part of our commitment to supporting Nigeria’s horticulture sector through capacity building and sustainable development practices of small holder farmers. By empowering farmers with access to finance and insurance, we are paving the way for sustainable and inclusive horticulture sub-sector in Nigeria.
“The objective is also to increase access by exposing the beneficiaries to different sources of suitable financial and insurance products”. Chiaka noted.
A representative of one of the financial institutions, Mrs Bold Annatu explained that farmers under HortiNigeria financial linkage initiative will benefit single digit interest rate and equity deposits.
” Our trust is to ensure farmers are given access to finance to boost their trade. We provide financial literacy and insurance facilities especially on death, flood and fire. What they require is just one percent of total sum required.
On interest, Mrs Annatu said ” We when two different types, one is for the morning agro processing company 5 percent reduction rate while producers have 2.5 percent”.
HortiNigeria is a four-year initiative (2021-2025) funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nigeria. It is implemented by a consortium that includes the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer (EWS-KT), Wageningen University and Research (WUR), and KIT Royal Tropical Institute.
The program aims to enhance food security in line with both Dutch and Nigerian objectives and it is being implemented across Kaduna, Kano, Ogun, and Oyo states, spanning seven value chains within the horticulture sector: cabbage, cucumber, okra, onions, pepper, sweet corn, tomatoes, and watermelon.
These initiatives focus on increasing the productivity and income of 60,000 small holder farmers (40% women and 50% youth), piloting innovative technologies, facilitating access to finance.
(PEOPLE’S PEN24)