Ayo Sotinrin, managing director (MD) of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), has said the BOA is digitising processes to ease farmers’ access to funding and other relevant financial support.
Sotinrin spoke at the 2SCALE–Dutch consulate media engagement forum, hosted by the 2SCALE programme in collaboration with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nigeria, held in Lagos under the theme “Inclusive Agribusiness in Nigeria: A Public-Private Dialogue”.
According to him, the BOA is adopting locally successful models and tailoring them for scale to tackle food insecurity and enhance agricultural exports under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
His words, “We are digitising a lot of our services to be able to know who our farmers are, which is the most important thing.
“Having a unique identification number for all the farmers allows us to know who we are financing. We can use their credit profiles to develop a credit scoring system, which would make access to credit easier based on their performance.”
Furthermore, the MD explained that the bank has fully digitised most of its processes in the last three months, enabling smallholder farmers to open accounts and apply for loans online through a simplified platform.
“What that means is if you are able to access a facility through us, it won’t be through that cumbersome system. As long as you qualify, we will give you a facility,” he revealed.
Sotinrin also emphasized that the BOA is ready to collaborate with other agribusiness-focused financial institutions, including FCMB, Sterling Bank, and Union Bank, to unlock more opportunities in the sector.
Speaking on recapitalisation, BOA MD pointed out that a stronger institution will offer more microcredit to small-scale farmers and syndicate large-scale financing for logistics and storage infrastructure.
“This isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy. “It is part of Mr. President’s vision under the food emergency declaration. We need to fix our impeded systems and develop new seed systems in Nigeria to increase productivity within the sector,” he noted.
Also speaking, Michel Deleen, consular general of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Lagos, underscored that inclusive agribusiness can only thrive through sustained public-private dialogue.
Deleen, who outlined next steps for deepening impact, said they include; knowledge-sharing across seven countries, embedding strategic technical support, and investing in agribusiness clubs as drivers of resilient food systems.
