Business
CBN to Disburse N75Bn In Lending For Agricultural Sector
Nigeria’s apex bank, the CBN, has injected N 75 billion facility into the agricultural sector of the economy. This is in a bid to diversify the country away from its dependence on oil income and support local farmers whilst also strengthening the agricultural sector of the economy.
The facility will be passed on to financial institutions who are expected to disburse the money a low-interest loans to farmers’ cooperatives’, according to BBC Business report.
The Head, Project Implementation of Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NISRAL),of the CBN, Mr. Jude Uzonwanne speaking on NISRAL to the News Agency of Nigeria stated that the scheme was a Public/Private Partnership between the federal government and banks to provide loans to the agricultural sector.
He said, “The Federal Ministry of Agriculture is also helping drive the re-construction of value change and where we can, we support that because our role is more all less to act as the lender to lenders. So in order for us to do that comfortably, we have provided technical assistance to ensure that people can get the goods to markets, that buyers of goods are organised, so we don’t want farmers producing six million tonnes of tomatoes and there is no buyer for it.
“If we can work with tomatoes processors to create paste factories or with rice millers to create rice mills, that becomes part of our responsibility in joint partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. We are trying to move away from an era in which people saw government assistance to agriculture as their piece of the national cake and they didn’t pay back loans, we know people who still owe Federal Government money, we want to move away from that.”
Business
Kenyan Runners Dominate Berlin Marathons
Kenya made it a clean sweep at the Berlin Marathon with Sabastian Sawe winning the men’s race and Rosemary Wanjiru triumphing in the women’s.
Sawe finished in two hours, two minutes and 16 seconds to make it three wins in his first three marathons.
The 30-year-old, who was victorious at this year’s London Marathon, set a sizzling pace as he left the field behind and ran much of the race surrounded only by his pacesetters.
Japan’s Akasaki Akira came second after a powerful latter half of the race, finishing almost four minutes behind Sawe, while Ethiopia’s Chimdessa Debele followed in third.
“I did my best and I am happy for this performance,” said Sawe.
“I am so happy for this year. I felt well but you cannot change the weather. Next year will be better.”
Sawe had Kelvin Kiptum’s 2023 world record of 2:00:35 in his sights when he reached halfway in 1:00:12, but faded towards the end.
In the women’s race, Wanjiru sped away from the lead pack after 25 kilometers before finishing in 2:21:05.
Ethiopia’s Dera Dida followed three seconds behind Wanjiru, with Azmera Gebru, also of Ethiopia, coming third in 2:21:29.
Wanjiru’s time was 12 minutes slower than compatriot Ruth Chepng’etich’s world record of 2:09:56, which she set in Chicago in 2024.
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