The Federal Government is seeking the approval of the National Assembly for a $1.2 billion loan aimed at fixing value chains in Nigeria’s agricultural sector, the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, has said.
Mrs Ahmed stated this during the Finance ministry’s budget defence at the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
The Minister also told the Committee that the loan would be financed by the Brazilian Government.
The Federal Government had in June announced plans to develop 142 agro-processing centres across the six geopolitical zones in the country.
The projects will be funded by the “Green Imperative” programme a $1.2 billion joint Nigerian-Brazilian agriculture development scheme.
According to the Minister, Nigeria needs to address the issues of its food value chain as the country diversifies away from oil.
The Minister stated:
We need to address issues in the agriculture value chain as the country moves towards other sources of revenue. Already, the federal government is making efforts to acquire 100,000 hectares of land per state for food production.
Roads will be built in such locations to provide access for farm inputs and ease the movement of farm produce to the markets. If the farmers can move their farm produce to markets, it will reduce post-harvest losses.
