He urged attendees to critically review the draft texts, question presumptions where needed, and share real-world experiences. “Today’s gathering marks an important milestone in that journey,” he added.
According to Dr. Paul Oluikpe, Director of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Development Finance Advisory Department, there is still a lot of work to be done to increase Nigerians’ access to agricultural financing.
Oluikpe praised the proposed non-interest finance structure, characterising it as a chance to mainstream an aspect of agricultural funding that is frequently disregarded.
“It’s a really important opportunity for us to bring in that particular dimension, because it’s often overlooked, with the non-interest finance framework that is being looked at and validated today,” Oluikpe stated.
Speaking as well, Professor Bashir Aliyu Umar, Deputy Chairman of the CBN’s Financial Regulation Advisory Council of Experts, stated that the suggested framework was in line with initiatives to advance financial inclusion and increase access to financing.
He stated, “What we are seeing today is also following this trajectory of financial inclusion and easing access to finance and having a level playing field and even developmental perspective for the entire country whereby no segment of society is left out.”
Olalekan Alabi, Head of Investment at NADF, gave a summary of the program, stating that the framework and rules were created to create a systematic method for allocating non-interest financing to qualified value-chain initiatives and agricultural activities.
According to Alabi, “the Framework and Guidelines together are expected to provide clarity on how NADF’s non-interest financing interventions will be structured, assessed, approved, implemented, monitored, and reported.”
“We are not here just to confirm that the documents have been prepared,” he continued. Our purpose is to evaluate their practical applicability and technical soundness.
Before the materials were finished, Alabi stated that stakeholders were asked to find any gaps, contradictions, overlaps, and clauses that needed more explanation.
He stated, “Our goal is to have a set of Framework and Guidelines that are understandable, technically sound, operationally feasible, suitably governed, and capable of supporting NADF’s non-interest agricultural financing interventions.”
According to the statement, representatives from government organisations and regulatory bodies, development partners, experts in non-interest finance, financial institutions, and other players in the financial and agricultural sectors attended the validation session.