Nigeria: Govt to Assist Commercial Farmers With Bond Offer

Posted to the web 24 July 2008 Kunle Aderinokun Abuja The quest to attain self-sufficiency in food production got a boost yesterday when the Federal Government said it would float a N200-billion bond in the Nigerian capital market, for on-lending to commercial farmers. The bond is expected to be used to fund farm set-up on the basis of soft loans, construct large dams and associated irrigation facilities and fiscal incentives, such as tax credit schemes on agricultural inputs. Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Abba Sayyadi Ruma, who disclosed this in Abuja at an International Conference on Food Security, also posited that the current global food crisis was an opportunity for Nigeria to exploit the full economic potentials of agriculture in the country. Ruma said at the conference organised by First Bank Nigeria... [read full story]