EPRON collects small e-waste @SLOT near you in Lagos - NaijaAgroNet

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The E-waste Producer Responsibility Organization of Nigeria (EPRON) has commenced a month collection exercise of small electronic waste in commemoration of 2022 international E-Waste Day (IEWD) at SLOT outlets in Lagos, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Executive Secretary, E-waste Producer Responsibility Organization of Nigeria (EPRON), Ibukun Faluyi, said Thursday in Lagos that they also plan to host stakeholders to a virtual session on Friday, October 14, 2022 by 11am.

Africa can feed on small fish - Study

NaijaAgroNet:

There is a burgeoning small, fast growing wild fish sector with capabilities to feed the continent of Africa, says the latest study of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) especially from drylands, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The new FAO report on fisheries in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa, its crucial to look towards these allies in the race to end hunger in some of the world's most chronically poor and underfed regions.

Lead author of the study, Jeppe Kolding, a professor of biology at the University of Bergen in Norway, noted that in order to get fish in a dryland their eggs could be boosted.

"Fish are incredibly productive when conditions are right. Their egg-laying capacities made them, more like insects than other vertebrates," he said.

Although the study recognized water as an ephemeral resource in Africa's dryland regions, which could be formed and disappearing relatively in a short period of time could not be surprising.

Kolding noted that despite this, fish some of which weigh as little as a few grams at maturity could survive and thrive in these environments, meaning the continent's dryland fisheries are in fact highly productive and resilient.

Pointing out that output from dryland fisheries fluctuates due to climate trends - mainly low and above all uncertain rainfall -but productive potential is very high in smaller water bodies, some of which appear only once a decade but could produce up to 150 kilograms of fish per hectare per year. Together, these small water bodies cover a much larger area than the sub-Saharan region's lakes and reservoirs.

This, the study said, if properly managed, these bodies in southern Africa alone could produce 1.25 million tonnes of fish, which is half the total recorded inland fisheries yield of the entire continent.

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Sky Bank nurtures over 200 SMEs for growth

 NaijaAgroNet

 

More than 200 customers and business partners in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) recently attended the Southeast edition of the Skye Bank’s SME seminar at Onitsha, Anambra State, NaijaAgroNet reports.

According to a press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet , this year’s edition with the theme,“Nurturing Businesses for Growth,” the bank  explained, was part of its contributions towards developing the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector of the Nigerian economy.

While delivering his remark, the bank’s Regional Director, South East I, Dr. Charles Udogu said MSME remains an important growth driver in any economy, warning key economic players in the nation’s polity not to neglect the sector NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Dr. Udogu said, “Having identified the gap in the SME sector, Skye Bank organized this seminar to bridge this gap through the Bank’s business seminar series.”

NaijaAgroNet also gathered that among those who spoke in the same vein, was Mrs. Ayo Olojede, Head, Small Business Group, Skye Bank, who disclosed that the Bank was coming up with solutions that would help to minimize the cost of doing businesses for small business owners.

Also, the Managing Director, Dilimson Holdings Limited, Mr. George Umobi, charged participants to confront challenges faced in the course of growing their businesses and charged them to seize the opportunity Skye Bank presented to them and make the best of it, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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Lend to farmers or face deposit cut, FG warns banks

Anthony Nwakaegho

/DigitalSENSE Business News

 

The Federal Government has threatened to cut her deposits with the commercial banks in the country over its reluctance to grant loans to agricultural, mineral resources and small and medium enterprises sectors of the economy.

 

The President Good Luck Jonathan dropped the hint, when he spoke at the 7^th Annual Banking and Finance Conference of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Abuja, Tuesday, and warned that government might be compelled to reduce their access to public sector deposits unless they increase their funding to these critical sectors.

 

President GoodLuck Jonathan who was represented the Minster of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama   frowned at the performance of the banks in not doing enough to support the real sector despite the policies and other incentives provided to create an enabling environment for them to thrive in the country over the years.

 

He explained that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has intervened through financial intermediation support initiatives such as Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS), and Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending,(NIRSAL).

 

The President expressed his desire for the banks to jointly do more in terms of Agricultural lending, adding that it has remained too low to achieve the Agricultural Transformation Agenda’s (ATA) goals of making Nigeria to become a net exporter of food and a hub in job creation in the nation’s economy.

 

"The banks have to come together and see how they can put funds together to really support the farmers. The statistics we have coming from the Central Bank is that when you lend to farmers they pay you. I think we have First Bank’s experience where the percentage of non performing agric loans to performing is less than 1.5 per cent.

 

“So the poor actually pay their loans, but why are the banks always eager to go and lend to riskier businesses than safe agricultural businesses? The issue is with our psyche, we think that maybe they are not high tech or maybe there is too much documentation based on a loan of N50, 000 or N100, 000.”

 

He warned that except the banks show their readiness to support the nation’s economic development objectives the CBN may have to introduce new policy measures that would deny the banks continued access to government deposits

 

The President of CIBN, Mr Segun Aina in his remarks reassured the government of the institute’s readiness to partner government on its various initiatives that is aimed at deepening banking knowledge and improving delivery of top class financial services to the nation’s economy.

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Pix: CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi