Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) has said that its collaboration with Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc.) aims to strengthen risk management and “farmermoni” support.
It said that the collaboration was also aimed at strengthening the farmermoni ecosystem and advancing the broader objectives of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
The National Programme Manager of GEEP, Mr Ibrahim Baba, said this in a statement issued by Mr Attari Hope, NSIPA Deputy Director/Head of Information in Abuja on Saturday.
Baba said this when he paid a courtesy visit to Managing Director/CEO of NIRSAL Plc, Mr Saad Hamidu, in Abuja.
NIRSAL is a non-bank financial institution owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) designed to transform Nigerian agriculture by making it less risky and more attractive for commercial investment and lending.
It de-risks the entire agricultural value chain by offering risk-sharing, insurance, and technical assistance to banks and agribusinesses, rather than directly lending to farmers, aiming to boost food security and economic growth.
The GEEP National Programme Manager said that the meeting focused on enhancing sustainability and risk-management mechanisms for GEEP beneficiaries and creating stronger inter-agency synergies to support smallholder farmers and enterprise empowerment across Nigeria.
He said that both parties agreed to explore cooperation in the following priority areas:
“Credit risk guarantees and co-financing: leveraging NIRSAL’s risk-sharing instruments and co-financing arrangements to de-risk lending to Farmermoni beneficiaries.
“Data sharing and enumeration: aligning beneficiary data, improving registration/enumeration processes, and strengthening digital records for program beneficiaries.
“Capacity building and technical assistance: joint training programmes for beneficiaries and field agents to boost productivity, financial literacy, and creditworthiness, ” he said.
Baba listed other areas of agreement to include input supply and market access, which involves facilitating linkages between beneficiaries and input suppliers, off-takers, and aggregation/market channels.
“Monitoring, evaluation and digital platforms: integrating M&E frameworks and digital tools to improve programme oversight, transparency and impact measurement.
“Policy advocacy and regulatory alignment: coordinated engagement with relevant stakeholders to ensure enabling regulatory environments for programme interventions,” he said.
He said that the collaboration could combine NIRSAL’s insurance and risk management solutions with farmermoni’s grassroots distribution and beneficiary network to deliver a comprehensive package of credit, inputs, training and risk mitigation nationwide.
Responding, Hamidu said that NIRSAL was committed to partnering with GEEP to combine risk-sharing products, technical expertise and market linkages to strengthen the farmermoni value chain and expand sustainable access to finance for smallholder farmers.
Next steps agreed by both parties included the formation of a joint technical working group to define pilot activities, timelines and an implementation plan, leading to a formal Memorandum of Understanding.
