By Udo Akam-Alo, ABAKALIKI
Farmers in Ebonyi state have been trained under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Intervention Program for the Small Scale Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
They were trained by officials from Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agencies of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in collaboration with United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The training held in Nkaleke-Echara Ndebor Autonomous Community in Ebonyi LGA and subsidised by USAID, aimed to assist Entrepreneurs who are interested in the MSMEs and other Programs. Farmers were trained in 13 local governments simultaneously.
Speaking during the program, Ebonyi State Coordinator of SMEDAN, Mr Asochukwu Thaddeus said “USAID group did a wonderful work for you people; if you are coming to our office for this program, what you will pay is N21,500 for the training and business plan but USAID intervened and removed some of the money and you are paying N13,500 instead of N21,500. They will write a report to CBN to make sure that this people have passed through them to access the loan.
“They will not give you money for buying and selling; they will give you money to do Agric businesses or businesses that involve equipment; if you’re into businesses like production of shoes, it’s allowed, nylon, piggery farming, any type of farming or any production is allowed.”
Similarly, the Ebonyi State Coordinator of USAID, Mr Lawrence Nze said “It’s an Intervention Program by the CBN and for anybody to obtain the loan according to the CBN guidelines, that Enterprise must be trained by CBN approved Entrepreneurship Development Institute(EDI) and SMEDAN is one of the EDIs approved by CBN Ebonyi State for this particular training.
“We decided to collaborate with SMEDAN to cut down the cost for this loan application for the MSMEs.”
The Chairman, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) in Ebonyi Local Government Area who is also the organizer of the program, Ofoke Emmanuel Madu, said he is concerned about the people, and called on the government to assist them.
“What prompted my organization of this program is to help the people of Ebonyi Local Government to benefit from the Anchor Borrowers from Federal Republic of Nigeria through Central Bank of Nigeria in Collaboration with USAID and SMEDAN, Ebonyi State.
“Long before now, it was very hard for us to convince farmers to attend this program but due to the Intervention of one of our patrons (South South and Southeast Patron of RIFAN), Ambassador Franklin Ogbuewu who has helped us to disburse some farm materials this year to the people of Ebonyi LGA and Ebonyi State in general, we were able to cover about 15million farm inputs to all the local government areas of the state this year and that helped us to gain interests of the farmers back to the program. The interest rate for the loan is 9%.
“Our expectations from Government is that they will support the farmers with machineries and other equipments such as pumping machines. There is no rain now and you can imagine if the farmers have pumping machines, they can water their rice; rice doesn’t need much water but at least the place must be moist,” the Chairman said.
A trainer with SMEDAN, Eze Divine called on the participants to be mindful of their perception about the loan adding that no bank wants to loose its money for any reason while patrons and patroness to the group namely Chief Goddy Ogbaga, Barr Kenneth Ogodo, Engr Sylvester Orichi and Ugoeze Jacinta Akam-Alo, amongst others also urged them to make judicious use of the loan once received knowing it is not to be used outside its intended purposes which is investment.
One of the participants, Mr Emmanuel Ogbaga, spoke on behalf of others pledging not to derail while calling on the Almighty to counter the long August drought with rainfall to enable their farm produce yield in abundance.
