TheCable

Yemi Odubiyi, executive director of corporate and investment banking at Sterling Bank, says the bank has dedicated 10% of its entire loan portfolio to agricultural financing.

Odubiyi made this known to journalists at a press conference on Tuesday while discussing the bank’s upcoming agricultural summit.

The director said Sterling Bank is committed to assisting the farming business so as to sustain food security in the country.

“We will not be able to stabilise the economy of this country until we address the food security issue and Sterling Bank wants to be associated with the government’s initiative in this regard,” he said.

The summit being organised is themed ‘Agriculture – Your Piece of The Trillion-Dollar Economy’ and is aimed at actualising the $1 trillion African agribusiness economy plan by 2030.

The summit will hold in Abuja on September 5 and 6.

Odubiyi said the summit will address the issues preventing the agricultural sector from attaining its potential because food security on the continent has become a critical issue.

In her comments, Bukola Awosanya, Sterling Bank’s group head for agriculture finance, said the Central Bank of Nigeria’s recent decision to ban forex for food importation will encourage local production.

“if the country continues to import, it would undermine the policies on food security,” she explained.

“We are the highest producers of cassava, so restricting forex on starch import will allow for more employment and production in the area. We believe that what is left is the sanitisation of the borders to check smuggling and encourage more production.”

Awosanya said the bank’s work with people across the entire value chain is aimed at helping the country achieve food security.