Business Jonathan: We will make credit accessible and cheaper for farmers

[jeff juwana]

President Goodluck Jonathan, during an address he delivered at the 19th Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja on Tuesday encouraged the private sector to take full ownership of the Federal Government’s Agriculture Transformation Agenda.
He said a team consisting of private sector, and CBN and headed by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, are currently working on how the government would link up with the private sector and the Central Bank of Nigeria to make sure that farmers got loans at low interest rates..
The summit, which was organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group in collaboration with the National Planning Commission is the single largest policy platform for dialogue between the public and private sector.
This year’s summit with the theme: ‘Growing agriculture as a business to diversify Nigeria’s economy’, was attended by top officials of both the public and private sectors.
The President emphasized that his administration was determined more than ever to unlock the economic potential of agriculture in order to ensure food security, create jobs and generate wealth.
He commended the Central Bank of Nigeria for its efforts in expanding lending to the agricultural sector and talked on the negative impact food importation has had on the economy.
He said "The importing of food makes our country vulnerable as any price shock in the global market impacts on us and we cannot depend on others to feed us; our population is too big to depend on imported food."