The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has expressed worry over N11.7
billion spent on the importation of 65,809 tonnes of processed tomato
paste into the country annually.
Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank governor, said this on Tuesday in
Abuja at a one-day stakeholders’ forum on partnering to build a
competitive tomato industry in Nigeria.
Mr. Sanusi was represented at the occasion by Sarah Alade, the Deputy Governor, Economic Policy.
The
governor, who said Nigeria was the 14th largest producer of tomato
globally and second in Africa, noted that the country imports processed
tomato paste valued at N11.7 billion annually. He attributed the reason
for the huge volume of imports to the dysfunctional agricultural value
chain system in Nigeria.
He said that this would result in a loss
of about 50 per cent of the tomato produced in the country to lack of
preservation, poor marketing, distribution and access to markets.
The
governor, who expressed the determination to help build a competitive
tomato industry in Nigeria, said that there was the need to develop
successful and effective partnership among the stakeholders.
“There
is need for partnerships by producers with key processors to increase
their competitiveness and locally source raw materials to replace
imported tomato products, increase jobs in rural areas and reduce
poverty.
“To this end, the CBN has been working assiduously with producers, leading processors and other stakeholders,” he said.
Mr.
Sanusi said the forum was organised to strengthen Nigeria’s tomato
industry through partnerships, noting that the array of stakeholders at
the forum was a demonstration of Nigeria’s potential in tomato
production.
The governor also said that the CBN had initiated an
intervention fund of N200 billion Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme
(CACS) and Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural
Lending (NIRSAL) to boost the sector.
He said the scheme had
disbursed a total of N199.25 billion to 270 projects, including 30 state
government projects. He said that NIRSAL was introduced to stimulate
agricultural development in Nigeria through value chain financing.
He
stated that the programme would build capacity of banks to engage and
deliver loans, reduce counterpart risk through an innovative crop
insurance scheme, and reward performance in agricultural lending.
“It
has issued 20 credit risk guarantee to counter parties valued at N5.01
billion and signed a Tripartite Memorandum of Understanding on technical
partnership which will give access to 100 million dollars USAID funds
to guarantee counter parties for agricultural lending,” he said.
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