BoA, SunTrust Sign MoU To Reach Farmers, Customers

The Bank of Agriculture (BoA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SunTrust Bank (STB) Nigeria Limited to reach no fewer than five million farmers across the country by 2020.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, while signing the MoU in Abuja on Monday, regretted that over the last 30 years, commercial banks had been unwilling to finance agriculture.
Ogbeh said the Federal Government had restructured BoA in such a way that agricultural lending would be easily repaid.
The minister said that the Information Technology (IT) services to be rendered by SunTrust Bank, would help the BoA to reach its customers.
“We have been trying to find funds to set up our IT services but the funds are not available.
“We are still pleading with the necessary authorities to reduce agriculture interest rates.
“There is no way any country can survive with 18 per cent interest rate and people need to feed well.
“I think BoA and our farmers will enjoy this partnership,’’ Ogbeh said.
The Managing Director of BoA, Mr Kabir Mohammed, said the partnership would enable the bank to reach and render quality services to its numerous farmers and customers across various communities.
According to him, with about 140 branches we have currently all over the country, there is need for us to partner with a commercial bank that can provide services that will reach our customers.
“The perception people have is that farmers are not intelligent but we know that our customer knows what a quality service is.
“In local governments where we have branches, some of our customers travel like 50 kilometres to reach our branches but with this partnership, it will be easier and services will be brought to their door steps.
“This is the era of electronic business and we are limited by regulation, we cannot issue cheque books on our own, we cannot issue ATM cards directly, we need to go through a commercial bank.
“What we have seen today is one of those partnerships that the bank intends to undertake with other banks.
“The SunTrust bank is new and small but with robust IT infrastructure.
“We are going to leverage on that to ensure that our customers that are financially excluded, can benefit from this.
“Farmers will now be able to use ATM cards to access funds and our corporate customers will now have access to cheque books,’’ Mohammed said.
The Chief Executive Officer of SunTrust Bank, Mr Muhammad Jibrin, said the bank would offer Information Technology Services to the BoA to be able to reach their customers in the remote areas.
“We are in the digital age so reaching people is actually by digital means. Our systems are up and running.