By Time Nigeria
The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele recently called on state governments to emulate Shonga Farms’ template as a way of delivering the real dividends of democracy to citizenry. This call was made during a working visit to Shonga Farms Holdings Limited.
As part of CBN’s economic plans to diversify the nation’s economy, Governor of the Apex Bank approved the sum of N2billion loan facility for poultry section of Shonga Farms, a farm that is located in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State and being owned by Kwara State Government and some private investors.
Following the approval of the loan, Emefiele made a visit to the farm to see for himself, what the farm has to offer Nigerian economy and as a financial institution to examine visibly the justification for the loan.
While expressing his satisfaction on what he met on the farms, Emefiele stated that the loan facility was to support the investor’s expansion plans and further said that the loan would be provided at a low interest rate of 9 per cent.
He described his visit as an eye opener, adding that there were several opportunities to tap from Shonga Farms and the poultry value chain, to improve the country’s economy.
The CBN governor lauded the state government for its initiative, he then called on other states of the federation to emulate Kwara state’s commercial agriculture template as a way of diversifying the economy.
According to him, “Shonga Farms is a practical example of how governments could collaborate with the private sector to deliver real dividends of democracy, such as jobs and agro-allied prosperity to the people”.
In his remarks, the former Governor of Kwara State and the initiator of Shonga Farms, the current Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Bukola Saraki commended the Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, for sustaining the vision of Shonga Farms and improving upon it, he equally appreciated the CBN Governor for accepting to visit the farm and for approving the loan.
Saraki said, “the visit was to identify challenges confronting the farmers as well as new opportunities available for investment at the farm”.
The Senate President however pledged that the National Assembly would support agriculture businesses in the country through the appropriate laws and effective oversight function of the relevant agencies.
His words, Mr. Ahmed, thanked the CBN Governor and Senate President for the visit and his support for the development of agriculture in the state.
He pointed out that the state government had established an Off-Taker Demand Driven Scheme, based on the lessons learnt from the Shonga Model.
Dr Ahmed said the effort was as a means of empowering farmers, creating jobs and establishing the state as an agriculture hub in the country.
It would be recalled that CBN under the leadership of Mr Godwin Emefiele has continued to live up to the expectations, in line with its core functions as the overall control and administration of the monetary and financial sector policies of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria in performing major developmental functions, focussing on key sectors of Nigerian economy, particularly in financial, industrial and agricultural sectors.
Owing to the fact that development financing has been identified as one of the key requirements of economic growth and development in any economy. Giving financial facility with the sole aim of powering key sector of economy will no doubt promotes economy even in an accelerated and holistic manner.
With this, it is evident that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele has continued to demonstrate a very strong commitment in ensuring that Nigeria economy is diversified using agriculture as a template.