Bank of Agriculture To Woo Nigerian Youths Into Agric Production Sector – Sambo

By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
Executive Director, Bank of Agriculture Corporate Services, Alhaji Mohammed Adamu Sambo has declared that the bank is set to woo Nigerian youths into the agricultural production sector.
Alhaji Sambo stated this in Ibadan at the flagging off of the Banking Operations and Customer Care Workshop for the Bank of Agriculture staff drawn from the three Southern Zones of Nigeria.
Speaking through bank’s South West Zonal Manager, Mrs. Idiat Titilayo Folorunsho, he said the Bank has fine-tuned its Youth in Agriculture Development in Nigeria (YAN) programme with lower interest rates through which beneficiaries can now access up to N1million agric loan for a start as well even more instantly on repayment
She maintained that the gesture was part of the Bank of Agriculture’s commitment to positively change the orientation of Nigerians towards agricultural development.
“We want to fine tune our relationship with our farmers.  We want to make sure that our farmers are well taken care of so that we can jointly do it better in the overall interest of the nation,” she said.
Disclosing that the same procedure applies to the women in agriculture,she urged youths in the Niger Delta region to take full advantage of the opportunity offered them whereby they can access a minimum of N1million agric loan of  to boost their fish farming.
Speaking further, she stressed that the main focus of the Bank of Agriculture is to take care of the customers by following up repayment through adequate monitoring and also to ensure paying back to take more loans for expansion.
Stressing that rural farmers are already used to the system of the Bank of Agriculture, she said “many elites take the Bank’s loans, re-locate, change address and we never find them again, thus making recovery difficult.”
“Consequently, we concentrate more on rural development.  It is easy for us to monitor as we go through community leaders who guarantee the beneficiaries and make recovery much easier”.
On the workshop, she said it was to update the Bank’s staff on the modern trends in agricultural banking such as acquiring knowledge on the fundamental principles of Banking, identify the Risks and Control Measures, acquire Customer Care Techniques, and the use of ICT for Customer Care.