The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele has again challenged tertiary institutions in Nigeria to promote research and well-designed programmes that will boost agriculture in Nigeria.
Mr. Emefiele stated this on Friday, April 23, 2021, while delivering a lecture titled: “Jump-Starting the Agricultural Revolution: The CBN Experience” at the 23rd-25th joint convocation lecture of the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (FUAM).
He said the university community has a responsibility to foster research to enhance yields per hectare by farmers and reduce other constraints, such as access to markets and storage facilities for their produce.
Citing the agricultural success of Israel made possible through research into irrigation, he said the CBN was eager to see how the university community and the graduating students could leverage their knowledge and research to come up with similar breakthrough solutions that would improve productivity of Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
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The Governor, who was represented by the Director, Development Finance Department, Mr. Philip Yila Yusuf, said the CBN was ready to provide a commercial outlook to research breakthroughs on improved seeds by ensuring a guaranteed market through off-take of those seeds for adoption by Nigerian farmers under the Bank’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).
He said ‘‘The CBN is eager to see how the university community graduates can leverage their knowledge and research to come up with breakthrough solutions that would improve the productivity of Nigeria’s agricultural sector.”
The governor also offered the Bank’s readiness to partner with Nigerian universities to achieve research objectives, while tasking them to set up demonstration farms from where farmers could obtain knowledge on the right farming practices to increase their yields.
