The Federal Government has revealed plans to borrow $1.2 billion from the Dutch Bank and the Development Bank of Brazil to fund mechanized agriculture in Nigeria.
Andrew Kwasari, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Agriculture, disclosed this to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said the initiative was under the Green Imperative Project of government, and that the loan had been insured in the insurance market.
“The Green Imperative will address issues of mechanisation and provide agro-processing. These two will work together through service centres that will be created in each Local Government Area in Nigeria.
“This project is a private sector-driven one. So all the service centres will be operated by private entrepreneurs and they will have the responsibility of servicing the loan.”
“The Green Imperative is a borrowing programme that will inject foreign direct investment of €995m, that is $1.2bn.
“This has been structured financially to allow the government use bilateral negotiation and arrive at a financing that is below three per cent per annum interest rate and a gestation period of about 15 years to be paid,” Kwasari stated.