The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has disbursed over N500,000,000 million to farmers in Nasarawa state from 2017 to 2020.
Head project monitoring, reporting of remediation office NIRSAL, Mr. Noel Dilli, disclosed this during a media and stakeholders engagement meeting in Lafia, the state capital on Thursday.
He said the total amount disbursed in Nasarawa state from 2017 to2018 was over N300 million, while between 2019 and 2020, about N200 million were equally disbursed in the state.
He added that over 4,500 people from over 20 cooperatives benefited from the loan.
Dilli said, “From 2017-2018 wet season 3,000 farmers were engaged, while in 2018-2019 about 500 farmers were benefitted. In 2020- 1,138 farmers benefitted,in 2021-the programme was suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic and non repayment of loan.
“And CBN gave us target to recover loan that were facilitated we are still on top of the situation. While in 2020, we are preparing for a pilot test with about 650 farmers.”
Also speaking, assistant manager Agriculture Value Chain Production Integration and Services (AVC-PIS) NIRSAL Miss. Onerno Obaseki lamented about the attitude of some farmers who receive the loans but do not repay them on the due dates.
She said, “It is actually very sad that about 80 per cent of the farmers who collected our loans are yet to repay them, and it is hindering us from giving loans to other farmers who are interested in accessing the loans.”
She urged all the farmers who are owing them to start paying so that they can continue to serve residents of the state without challenges.
“NIRSAL was created to transform the economy, deliver inclusive growth and positively impact lives of people in Nigeria,” she said.
