Steps to Achieve ‘The Decade of Gas’ - NaijaAgroNet

Commentary@NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Nigeria is a study in contradiction. It has the largest proven gas reserve in Africa yet faces a significant challenge in providing access to gas for a majority of its citizens and businesses. On top of this, it occupies an unenviable position as one of the top seven gas-flaring countries in the world, according to the World Bank. The tale would be unbelievable if it was fiction.

Sadly, the reality is grim. Oil-producing companies burn off millions of cubic litres of natural gas during oil production. They use a fancy term, gas flaring, to describe it. It doesn't however take remove from the fact that the action, gas flaring, is a glaring waste of a wasting resource. It also impacts negatively on the environment, human health and the cost of gas. It needs to be stopped.

Malabo Declaration, a stakeholder reference for next decade - EU

NaijaAgroNet:

Chairman of the European Union (EU) Development Partners Task Team, represented by the Head, Operations at EU Delegation to African Union, Ms Anna Burylo, has described the Malabo Declaration as a reference point for all African development stakeholders for the next decade, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Specialised Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment at the African Union headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, assured of their support to Malabo Declaration, stressing that Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) agenda is articulated into the new context created by the Malabo Declaration.

As said by her, the CAADP Results Framework (RF) along with the Malabo Implementation Strategy and Roadmap (IS&R) as well as its related programme of work are key documents demonstrating African leadership and framing Development Partners (DPs) and all other Malabo stakeholders action at continental, regional and national level, in particular through a set of headline indicators.

“All partners should adopt and adapt to these documents,” the EU Development Partners chair declared.

Pointing out that how DPs could align and tract their actions against such documents is a key issue of partnership.

 This is because, they would be able to frame the mutual accountability system which DPs will adhere too along with all other African CAADP and Malabo stakeholders, especially those seeking to coordinate and harmonise projects and programmes across Africa, by way of ensuring that food security and agriculture actions in global processes such as G8 and G20 align with African priorities and needs.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) in Addis Ababa 
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Agric: Banks’ lending set to rise to 7% in 10 yrs

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that bank lending to agriculture sector is expected to rise to seven per cent from its present 3.5 per cent within the next decade.

                                                                                                        

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Dr Kingsley Moghalu, dropped the hint on a sideline at the end of the Euromoney Conference held in Lagos, and said that the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) initiative has boosted agricultural lending to farmers  in the country.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the agricultural sector has received tremendous attention due to the transformation agenda of President Jonathan’s administration that has envisioned the sector as the key to economic growth and development in Nigeria.

 However, available data from CBN revealed that NIRSAL which guarantees up to 75 per cent of the bank loans to the sector was initiated in July 2013 to grow loans to the sector to four per cent of banks’ total loans, from the average of 1.5 per cent in 2009.

For the records, NIRSAL which is the initiative of the CBN, the Bankers’ Committee and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), seeks to create incentives and modify all the processes that will encourage the growth of formal credit, direct and indirect, for the agriculture value chain.

*With additional report from Nation

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