Federal Ministry Of Agriculture Empowerment Loan 2022/2023

6 Programs Agricultural folks can tap into for Business expansion.

One of the ways the Nigerian Government invests in the agricultural sector, food security in the country and agricultural research is through the Federal Ministry of agriculture and rural development.

Specifically, the job of the Federal Ministry of agriculture and rural development is to develop and regulate agricultural researches, forestry and veterinary research, agriculture and natural resources.

They’re also in charge of ensuring food security, rural income growth, executing national goals of rural development and creating job opportunities for Nigerians.

With a body in charge of agricultural activities and food affairs in the country, they make it easy for anyone to get into the agricultural space as long as they’ve got the passion and resilience for it.

The best part is that they offer loans and other opportunities that people in the agricultural field can tap into for business growth and expansion and also career growth.

If you’re in the agricultural field, here are some of the programs you can tap into to grow your agricultural business.

The Life Program

One of the avenues created for the improvement of rural setups and communities by (FMARD) is the LIFE program (Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises),

which is aimed at improving the livelihood and standard of living of Youths and Women in rural and suburban communities.

The program further ensures the promotion of community-based on-farm and off-farm business activities along with key agricultural value chain as a means of job and wealth creation among the denizens of these communities.

The LIFE program adopts a Cluster model (LIFE Clusters) at the ward level of the Local Government Areas to enable their targeting of core commodities of comparative advantage in such communities.

Life Goals Objectives

The mission statement of the programme is to contribute to the attainment of food security and economic growth of Nigeria through job creation,

value addition, and promotion of business enterprises in agriculture, increasing rural income generation and improved livelihoods for youths and women.

The Specific target is to directly empower approximately 3,000,000 rural youths and women in on-farm and off-farm value chain,

produce about 14,000,000 metric tons of food across the 774 Local Government Areas nationwide from 2016 to 2019

focusing on key national commodities while reducing rural food wastage by 20% through the establishment of rural cottage industries and organized link to competitive markets.

Target Beneficiaries

LIFE Programme is targeted at rural/sub-urban communities with special focus on:

• Youths between the ages of 18-40 years
• Women with priority attention on female led households Apply Here

YEAP Empowerment programme

The first loan scheme on our list to elevate the lives and businesses of farmers and those in Agricultural business is the YEAP empowerment programme.

YEAP is an acronym for Youth Employment in Agriculture Program. Developed by the ministry, this program aims to provide as many job opportunities as possible for youths in the agricultural or agro business space.

This program is specifically targeted at youths with the aim to create about 750,000 jobs for youths who are willing to get into the agro business space.

After getting into ths space, if you start your agricultural business or have has an already existing business, this program would grant you the amount of N15 million naira to fund your agricultural business idea.

Of course, the Nigerian government is not the only sponsor of this program. Bodies like the German Development Bank, and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority are forefront investors in this scheme.

AGSMEIS Empowerment Loan

Just like the name suggests, this is a loan scheme which means you have to payback the money you get from them.

AGSMEIS is an acronym for Agri-business/small and medium enterprise investment scheme. The goal of this scheme is to, in the long run, boost the ecomony of the country and create more job opportunities for people.

They intend to execute their goals by supporting and promoting agricultural businesses, especially SMEs in the agricultural sphere.

Youths in the agricultural field can benefit from this scheme and can turn their agricutural business into one of the top businesses in the world.

But, since it’s a loan, you’ll have to payback. Note that this scheme is for Agricultural and Allied processing sector.

NALDA empowerment scheme

This scheme is another scheme that empowers the agricultural industry in Nigeria, leading opportunities for people in the agricultural business.

NALDA is an acronynm for National Agricultural Land Development Authority and its focus is to fully deploy the potentials that amazing vast lands have into agricultural activities.

No doubt, Nigeria has a vast expanse of land and utilizing some of the lands with great potentials for agricultural activities improves food security, and increases opportunities for agricultural businesses.

Specifically, this scheme empowers small Holder and large Scale Farmers and mechanized farmers. There are other benefits that this scheme effortlessly yields including boost the mobilization and generation of revenue nationwide, diversifies the nation’s economy in the long run, boosting household incomes, etc.

At its core, the goal of the NALDA is to improve the cost of living and lives of youths and women in Nigeria, alleviating poverty and food problem from the nation.

This scheme has another scheme under it called the National Youth Farmers scheme (NYFS) that’s targeted towards ensuring Nigerian youths participate more in agricultural activities.

POWER AGRO

This scheme is part of the N-Power scheme but it caters to the agricultural aspect of the country. It is targerted towards providing education on agricultural subjects and roles to beneficiaries.

For instance, it distributes knowledge to people on how to develop farms, and be great agricultural business owners that make the right choices for their agricultural business. Some of the courses that interested participants would be trained on includes

Agro-entrepreneurship, Agriculture Extension Services, Farm managers, Consultant, Farming co-operatives management, Seed fertilizer and other input aggregators, and Public sector jobs in agriculture.

So, if agricuture is something you’ll love to dive into but you don’t know what or how to pursue or get into it, this scheme can put you through. To benefit from this scheme, you do not need to have a degree in agriculture or related courses.

Apply for Npower Agro

Agricultural Credit Support Scheme (ACSS)

This scheme is targeted at funding farmers to enable them explore all the possibilities and potentials that the agricultural industry could attain.

With the combined effort of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the the Central Bank of Nigeria, this scheme has been able to garner N50 billion naira dedicated to the cause of exploring the untaapped territories of Agriculture in Nigeria.

The goal of this scheme is to eliminate inflation, reduce agricultural production cost, create more than enough for exportation, and increase the country’s earnings and value in the foreign exchange market.

Through Central Implementation Committee (CIC), the ACSS scheme functions at national level in the country. It executes its operations at state level via the identity of the State Implementation Committees (SICs).

of course, the amount given out to farmers under this scheme are loans that would be repaid after a period of time. Applying for loans under this scheme is open to both small scale and large scale farmers.

Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS)

Established by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources (FMA&WR), this scheme is targeted at funding agricultural activities like production, processing, storage and marketing.

Boosting these processes with adequate funding would yield positive results for the country’s economy in many ways.

Some of the benefits this scheme is set to yield includes boosting food security by increasing food supply, reduction of credit so farmers can afford to explore untapped potentials in the field, etc.

This scheme would be financed by N200 Billion bond that the Debt Management Office (DMO) generated.

Once you qualify for this loan as a farmer, you’ll get a loan with a maximum of 9% to fund your research and exploration.

CONCLUSION

As a youth looking to enter into the agricultural sector, it’s important that you know the funding and learning opportunities that’s available to you. Now that we’ve shown you the available opportunities, feel free to tap into these opportunities to expand your agricultural business.

Youwin