The Central Bank of Nigeria has said that public resources alone cannot meet the country’s agricultural financing needs, calling for greater private-sector investment to address funding shortages, improve productivity and strengthen food security.
The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, disclosed this on Tuesday in his keynote address at the National Stakeholder Roundtable on Strengthening Agricultural Credit Guarantees, held at Fraser Suites, Abuja.
Cardoso, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Lamido Yuguda, said Nigeria needed sustainable financing arrangements that would attract commercial investment while reducing agricultural lending risks.
“The scale of Nigeria’s agricultural financing needs cannot be met by public resources alone. Guarantee mechanisms must therefore be designed to achieve additionality, using public resources strategically to unlock substantially greater volumes of commercial and development finance,” he said.
He explained that the apex bank was repositioning its development finance activities towards market-based lending, increased private-sector participation and sustainable risk-sharing
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