The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Management System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) Plc has facilitated over N146 billion into the agricultural sector and related businesses.
The Managing Director, Mr. Aliyu Abdulhameed disclosed this when he addressed the press, in Abuja, yesterday.
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According to him, “When we say that NIRSAL Plc has facilitated the flow of over N146 billion into agricultural commodity value chains from commercial banks, we mean that we have brokered deals whose value add up to that figure.
“Banks, very conservative with depositors’ funds, have long shied away from lending to agriculture because of their high perception of risks.
“Therefore, NIRSAL Plc necessarily creates conditions that influence a change in perception under a purely commercial logic. We refer to it as fixing value chains.”
The MD said that the unprecedented achievement was made possible in various sub-sectors of agriculture including crop production and commodities processing, animal husbandry, transportation and other value-chain segments of the sector by the dedication of the management and staff.
The NIRSAL Plc boss also disclosed that they have recorded less than one percent in Non-Performing Loans (NPL) for projects guaranteed by NIRSAL.
An elated NIRSAL boss said that the expertise with which his organization has carried out its mandate resulted in minimal cases of loan beneficiaries’ defaults.
According to him, “The Credit Risk Guarantee (CRG) tool, which we deploy to facilitate agricultural lending, comes in the form of a piece of paper. It is only when a project fails and puts a lender’s money in jeopardy that the CRG tool begins to take the shape of money. Even then, we have witnessed less than 1 percent of such scenarios in our entire existence”.
“We spend a lot of our time and resources to make sure that everybody we guarantee is risk managed. Everything that can delay that project and make it lose money whether it is human character, whether it is biological or physical, whatever it is; we try to risk management.
“We procure, we support, we make sure every project we support is successful, the reason being it’s in our own self-interest.”
Mr. Abdulhameed explained that his organization followed each project closely from the day a participating bank released funds to the beneficiary to ensure its success.
“When banks lend, projects succeed, and borrowers pay back, our job is done. We at NIRSAL Plc wake up every morning and go to work for the sole purpose of triggering and sustaining this flow,” he said.
Engaging the insurance industry, the MD said, added a great value to the work of the organization, as according to him, NIRSAL got insurance companies to create unique products for each segment of the value chain that speaks to their risk.
He said that consequent upon this, every segment of the agricultural sector has been captured in the design of specific insurance products which has made it attractive to Deposit Money Banks. Submit Applications Here.