The African Exchange Holdings (AFEX) has disclosed that it has proposed a N40 billion disbursement budgetary allocation to help farmers operate the warehouse receipt system in Nigeria.
The fund will help farmers to facilitate access to quality financing in the agricultural sector.
This was made known recently in Abuja at a warehouse receipt sensitisation capacity building training for farmers in Nigeria organised by the federal ministry of agriculture and rural development.
Speaking at the National Cooperative Development Centre (NDCD), Sheda, Abuja, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Mrs Ibukun Odusote, stated that the training was intended to provide participants with information on produce handling and storage, with a view to boosting agricultural productivity in the country.
The permanent secretary who was represented by the director of cooperatives of the ministry, Dr. Dickson Okolo, explained that the train-the–trainers programme would enable participants to replicate the information and experiences gathered at the workshop to the cooperatives in the states.
Corroborating the benefits of the warehouse receipts system in Nigeria, the national president of the National Agricultural Cooperatives Organization, Mr. John Sani, commended the good gesture of the ministry, saying that “farmers will make more money, pay their children’s school fees when the prices of produce fall”.
