EMEKA OKOROANYAWU
The Federal Government has unfurled plans to restructure ownership of Bank of Agriculture (BoA).
According to the Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises, Alex Okoh, the restructuring will see the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) holding 20 per cent equity, Federal Ministry of Finance (Incorporated) 20 per cent, private sector investors 20 per cent, while the remaining 40 per cent will be owned by farmers and farmers’ co-operatives.
Okoh said it has become imperative to restructure the bank to substantially improve its operating framework.
Speaking at a meeting for the recapitalisation of the bank in Abuja, Okoh said the lender had performed sub-optimally due to the myriad of challenges it faced since inception in 1972, adding that the process will lead to the privatisation of equity of the bank.
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A statement issued by Head, Public Communications, Amina Tukur Othman quoted Okoh as saying that the new strategy envisages that BoA will be transformed into a truly agriculture finance bank modeled along the lines of Agriculture Bank of China and Rabobank of the Netherlands, adding that upon its establishment in 1972 to serve as an agricultural and cooperative bank to provide services of a development finance institution, it was vested with the responsibility of providing low cost credit to small holder and commercial farmers.
He, however, lamented that the bank had been unable to realise its responsibilities due to its current structure, stressing that the proposed restructuring and recapitalisation of the bank seek to transform it strictly into an agricultural finance bank with functional branches in all the local government areas and major towns in Nigeria.
The Director General said that the model was sure to encourage farmers to form clusters of cooperatives and thrift societies throughout the six geo-political zones for the purpose of participating in the ownership of the bank.
Okoh added that the model would fundamentally ensure that the BoA becomes a farmers’ bank owned by farmers.
On the sustainability of the strategy and attracting investment, the DG, BPE explained that measures would be put in place to take non-performing credit facilities off the balance sheet and books of the Bank and possibly sold off to a factor agent. He said further that the measure is to make the Bank attractive to investors and also attract cheap funding from multilateral development institutions and other institutional investors with a focus on agricultural financing.
