As part of efforts to boost farmers productivity and improve their livelihoods, the Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement, and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) – a World Bank assisted project and the Africa Leadership Forum (ALF) have collaborated to train 250 farmers on how to access second-level financing and tap opportunities in the export market.
Oluranti Sagoe-Ovievo, Lagos State project coordinator, APPEALS said that the project is linking farmers to second-level financing in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“CBN has engaged some EDI’s to train APPEALs beneficiaries on export promotion and finance,” she said.
On what APPEALS have done to support the farmers amid the pandemic, she says the project has enlightened and trained them on how to practice social distancing on their farmland.
She says the project has also created an e-marketing platform to help beneficiaries sell their products owing to disruptions caused by the pandemic on the supply chain.
“This has helped a lot of our farmers,” she noted.
She stated that 500 beneficiaries have been trained on e-marketing and value addition to help increase their product shelf life and income while reducing post-harvest losses.
Speaking on the project achievements, she stated that APPEALS has supported 720 farmers with inputs and each with an average of N1.7million in form of equipment and inputs.
Also speaking during the training, Abisola Olusanya, Lagos Commissioner for Agriculture, commended APPEALS for its contribution towards food security in the state.
She said that the training is supporting to change the narrative of agriculture to agribusiness.
She says that the Lagos state government will continue to support the APPEALS project and ensure facilitation by linking the project with CBN and federal government interventions as well as multinational agencies.
Olusanya noted that APPEALS is doing a fantastic job in supporting farmers with finance in form of grants.
She urged the beneficiaries to also train other farmers what they have learned from the training programme to boost agro productivity and food security.
Fumilayo Ayoola a catfish farmer who participated in the programme said that the training has broadened her capacity on the export market and food safety procedures to ensure product quality.
“We were also taught how to keep proper financial records for our businesses,” she said.
“With what I learned from the training, I intend to tap opportunities in the export market,” she added.
Another farmer, Gbadamosi Nojeem Olalekan says he has been able to access single digit loan after undergoing the training to scale his business with a moratorium and repayment tenure of seven years.
