The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) and Credit Agricole Du Maroc (CAM) have signed a memorandum of understanding to improve both countries agriculture sectors.
The MoU is geared towards the promotion of inclusive growth and sustainable development of the agriculture sectors of both countries through the facilitation of finance and investment, trade and support systems across agricultural value chains, with emphasis on smallholder farmers.
A visit to Nigeria in 2016 by the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, began the initial pact between NIRSAL Plc and CAM.
It formed part of 15 bilateral agreements signed by the King and President Muhammadu Buhari on behalf of their countries.
Six years later, NIRSAL Plc and CAM met again. This time at the head office of the latter in Rabat, to review activities under the agreement and rekindle the partnership.
The latest meeting expanded the scope of their pact to include B2B relationships, capacity building, knowledge transfer and digital agribusiness risk management solutions.
On behalf of their institutions, the managing director/CEO of NIRSAL Plc, Aliyu Abdulhameed, and the chairman of the management board of Credit Agricole Du Maroc, Tariq Sijilmassi, signed the MOU.
During the MOU signing event, Abdulhameed elaborated on NIRSAL Plc’s areas of need to include the development of financing products that suit the seasonality of agriculture and other farming contexts, and emphasising the difficulties smallholders experience in keeping to the terms of conventional bank financing products.
Abdulhameed said he was confident that innovative financing products that speak to the peculiarities of agricultural primary production would help agriculture financiers to maximise the benefits and incentives in the 75 per cent credit risk guarantee issued by NIRSAL Plc for primary production projects, as well as interest drawbacks of up to 40 per cent that diligent borrowers can enjoy.
