The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc) has entered into partnership with the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) with a view to creating over 110,000 jobs in the nation’s agricultural value chain.
NIRSAL said in a statement in Abuja Friday that the move is in “continuation of its mandate of providing end-to-end solutions aimed at fixing breakages along the Agricultural Value Chains (AVC) in Nigeria”.
According to the statement, NIRSAL has engaged NASENI as its technical collaborative partner for the conceptualization, design, development, deployment, implementation and execution of various schemes/projects under the NIRSAL-NASENI Comprehensive Tractor Recovery Scheme, the NIRSAL Climate-Smart Modular Geo-Cooperative-Based Irrigation System for Smallholder Farmers and other Agricultural Value Chain-related challenges requiring efficient homegrown scientific and engineering solutions for proof of concept projects and scale-up, to attract finance and investment into fixed Agricultural Value Chains.
As part of the partnership, NIRSAL Plc and NASENI will crowd-in stakeholders from all AVC segments to create AVC-wide commercially viable platforms anchored on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).
To make up for the deficit in tractors and other mechanization equipment, NIRSAL Plc and NASENI will recover and reinvigorate idle agricultural equipment for enhanced mechanization of Agricultural Value Chains in Nigeria.
In addition, the technological capacity of NASENI in the area of solar modules production creates a critical backbone in the provision of off-grid energy to power modular irrigation and agro-processing clusters that are domiciled within NIRSAL Agro Geo-Cooperative clusters.
Critically, in addition to optimizing the capacity of NASENI, the partnership, like all of NIRSAL Plc’s strategic interventions, will create widespread socioeconomic development. Specifically, at least 110,000 jobs will be created, 10,000 directly and 100,000, indirectly – another instance of NIRSAL Plc’s support of the Federal Government’s efforts to achieve economic stability and prosperity for Nigerians.
Speaking at a launch event hosted at NIRSAL Plc’s Head office, Aliyu Abdulhameed, NIRSAL Plc’s Managing Director/CEO expressed optimism that the partnership would ensure that there are sustainable fixes to identified challenges facing the Agribusiness Sector in Nigeria.
He added that the partnership will go a long way in maximizing the agricultural potentials of the country, thereby contributing to the achievement of food security, inclusive economic growth, diversification, and employment generation.
Restating NIRSAL Plc’s commitment to assuring the success of the collaboration, Abdulhameed added that NIRSAL Plc would extend its Credit Risk Guarantee (CRG) cover to finance invested into the scheme; provide Project Monitoring, Reporting and Remediation services; provide technical assistance, capacity building & advisory services and create, provide & facilitate capital market opportunities.
Also speaking, Engr. Prof. MS Haruna, NASENI’s Executive Vice Chairman assured that NASENI would “provide cutting edge research and development on innovative approaches for all the schemes and projects under the agreement to advance mechanization, modular irrigation activities and other agricultural engineering solutions across Agricultural Value Chains.”
NIRSAL Plc’s latest intervention in promoting the adoption of mechanized farming follows the collaborative NIRSAL Comprehensive Agricultural Mechanization Program (NCAMP), developed and deployed in collaboration with Machines and Equipment Corporation Africa (MECA) and NASENI.
Beyond NIRSAL’s collaboration with NASENI, NIRSAL’s optimized operating system embeds end-to-end mechanization in all of its activities with smallholder farmers nationwide.
