The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc) on Tuesday described as unfounded and baseless Abuja-based news medium’s report alleging its diversion of N5.6 billion meant to be disbursed to Kano and Jigawa wheat farmers.
Describing the publication a hollow piece of journalism, the agency noted that the publication represented a continuation of unceasing trends of attacks by persons bent on derailing its operations and defaming its personnel.’
NIRSAL maintained that neither it nor any of staff was involved in such a shady deal and demanded an immediate retraction of the story and apology of the publishers of the libelous publication within 48 hours.
It stated: “Some media houses, for reasons best known to them, are yielding their platforms to be used for falsehood and outright defamation.
“In this age of social media where false news reigns, it is unfortunate that (the newspaper) would allow its hard-earned reputation to be used for this dubious purpose.
“As clarified severally on this and other similar matters, NIRSAL Plc neither takes funds from government nor does it guarantee government-funded projects. It was created to facilitate the flow of private/bank finance and investment into the agricultural value chain.
“This facilitation comes mainly in the form of credit risk guarantees to financiers/investors in agriculture, technical assistance to projects and project owners and the discretionary interest rebate support given to diligent borrowers under the extant conditions. Business leaders in the public and private sectors hold their positions in trust for their stakeholders and so must be accountable to them at all times.
“NIRSAL Plc’s Management is no different. It has welcomed and even supported official inquiries into its dealings, especially with regards to a so called “Kano/Jigawa Wheat project’’, the agency stressed.
Expatiating further on the wheat project issue, NIRSAL further clarified: “Amidst the spurious tales being spun by many agents paid to discredit NIRSAL Plc, only one detail matters to NIRSAL Plc’s bottom line as a corporate entity: the lenders got their money back, NIRSAL Plc’s credit guarantee was not activated.
“It is an established fact that Nigeria imports over five million metric tons of wheat annually whilst local production remains a paltry 60,000 metric tons per annum.
“This means Nigeria spends over US$3 billion on wheat importation annually. For a country that is striving to shore up its foreign reserves in order to have a stronger economy, it is pertinent for all patriotic stakeholders to identify and support local production of products, especially agricultural commodities, which the country has the comparative advantage to produce.
“NIRSAL, as a focused and value driven company, is ever ready and supportive of players within the country’s agricultural sector that are developing solutions that can increase the competitiveness of Nigeria’s agricultural value chains. Amongst the tools used in achieving its mandate are the Credit Risk Guarantee (CRG), Technical Assistance and the Interest Drawback mechanism.
“In 2018,NIRSAL Plc was approached by one of its partner commercial banks(Keystone Bank Plc) for a CRG in respect of a loan it was going to avail to two companies that had shown interest in privately funding the production of wheat in Nigeria.
“This by all standards, was a laudable initiative and one that gave credence to NIRSAL’s mandate of facilitating private capital into the Nigerian agricultural sector.
“A successful demonstration of the cultivation of wheat on a large scale and the adoption of such initiative by other private companies would have easily saved Nigeria US$3billion yearly sourced from our reserves for the importation of wheat.
“The private companies (Forest Hill Development Limited and Mainframe Agricultural Investment Limited) got the loans from Keystone Bank and, through the bank, obtained a CRG from NIRSAL Plc following all necessary steps just like any other application. NIRSAL Plc supported this loan application by issuing its CRG for this project’’, it added.
NIRSAL maintained that it was not the financing entity but only providing its traditional CRG tool which is absolutely in line with its mandate, adding that its CRG is not called in as the private companies completely repaid their loans to the lending bank.
The agency stated that it was, therefore, unfounded and baseless for anyone or organization to insinuate that N5.6 billion belonging to farmers was diverted by NIRSAL Plc or any of its staff.
