By Oludele Taiwo
A former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has stressed the need to improve the agriculture sector’s access to financial services. Atiku, who was represented by Ibrahim Bashir while speaking on a sideline of the launch of the All Farmers Association (AFAN) at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, observed that as a stakeholder with sufficient understanding in agriculture, he believes that the sector was the surest path to attaining economic development. He made a case for a policy of diversification and supporting the development of commercially-driven technology, sufficient agriculture and proficiency in agriculture.
This, according to him, would ensure food security, lead to farmers’ interface with manufacturers for supply of raw materials, modern productive and competitive adventure, as such adventure would lead to jobs creation and poverty reduction. “The overall goal is to improve the financial capacity of farmers and other agricultural producers to adopt new technologies that will increase their yields and resilience to economic shocks and engage women by providing various working capital requirements for small scale farming and granting loans to low income people”, he disclosed further.
