Accessing BoI’s agric processing fund.
By Yinka Kolawole, with agency report
Agriculture is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, with agricultural produce abounding in every state of the federation, but with limited capacity for processing and preservation, resulting in huge losses and wastages.
This prompted the Bank of Industry (BoI) to establish the Cottage Agro-Processing (CAP) Fund to support the establishment of cottage agro-processing plants to produce food products and raw materials for industries within and outside the Staple Crop Processing Zones (SCPZs) across the country.
Transaction structure
The Fund ensures that anticipated risks are dimensioned and mitigated by its transaction structure. It enhances goodwill by supporting agricultural production and rural development and create employment.
Objective: Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, Managing Director of BoI, said at the launching of the N5 billion CAP Fund in September 2014, that the bank plans to finance about 1,000 projects under this fund. “It is targeted at Small and Medium Industries at the low-technology, labour intensive end of the agro-processing spectrum. And inclusive growth is our primary consideration.
The fund is designed to enable BoI, being Nigeria’s leading development finance institution, play its catalytic role of paving the way for other financial institutions to follow,” he said.
Olaoluwa added that the fund will provide loans to beneficiaries to establish small scale plants or mini mills to process Nigeria’s agricultural products.
Primary consideration
His words: “The Cottage Agro Processing (CAP) fund will provide loans to beneficiaries to establish small scale plants or mini mills to process Nigeria’ s agricultural products such as cassava , oil palm, paddy rice, groundnut, yam, maize, cocoa, sheanut ,plantain, cashew, hides and skin, meat, chicken and fish. These products are grown all over the country and have been selected to ensure an even distribution across Nigeria’s 36 states.”
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