Following a competitive process, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele has approved the appointment of Mr. Aliyu Abbati Abdulhameed as substantive Managing Director of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).
Also, Babajide Arowosafe was appointed the Executive Director (Technical) for NIRSAL, Thisday reports.
Abdulhameed holds a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a Masters Degree in Public Administration with specialisation in Public Policy. He also holds an Executive Masters Certificate in Project Management from the Project Management College (UK).
He has over 22 years experience in Corporate Agribusiness and in the field of Agricultural Finance and Risk management. Abdulhameed is currently an Executive Team Member of NIRSAL Plc.
On the other hand, a statement from the central bank on Wednesday explained that Arowosafe, has a first degree in Agriculture and a Masters in Agricultural Policy and Administration.
According to the statement, “he has wide-ranging experience in agriculture and micro-enterprises having worked in these fields for both the World Bank and the United Nations. Most recently, Arowosafe was the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Ekiti State.”
NIRSAL is an initiative of the CBN, the Bankers Committee (BC) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (FMA&RD). In addition to many other functions, the company essentially administers a Risk Sharing Fund designed to identify, redefine, measure, re-price and evolve strategies to de-risk and catalyse lending to the Nigerian agriculture value chain.
It was subsequently incorporated as a public limited liability company (PLC) and licensed as a Non-Bank Financial Institution (NBFI) with the primary mandate of facilitating the flow of credit to agri-business value chain players and collaborating with stakeholders to fix broken agricultural value chains in Nigeria.
NIRSAL promotes economic development by acting as a catalyst for credit flows to agricultural value chains by systematically addressing key failures in agribusiness supply chains.
“From inception in 2012 to date, 454 projects valued N61.161 billion had been guaranteed by NIRSAL. Furthermore, the sum of N753.36 million was paid out as interest rebate to borrowers who repaid promptly to encourage good repayment behaviour thereby minimising default.
“In addition, by the end of Year 2014, NIRSAL has trained 27,142 farmers across the country. These appointments underscore the CBN’s determination to re-focus NIRSAL and help de-risk agricultural lending in Nigeria. The bank is confident that this will help in moving the country towards food sufficiency, job creation, and inclusive growth,” it added.
Posted by Janice Johnson
