...Bags FUAM Honorary Doctorate in Agripreneurship
by: Nanah hauwa isah
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L-R : Former Governor of Adamawa state, Admiral Murtala Nyako, Representative of the CBN Governor and Director Development Finance Department, CBN, Yusuf Philip Yila, Minister of state for Petroleum, Timipriye Silva at the convocation ceremony of Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi on Saturday April 24, 2021 |
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.
This was stated on the 23rd April, 2021 by the CBN governor 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).
According to him, the university community had a significant role in fostering research that would enhance yields per hectare by farmers and reduce other constraints faced by farmers such as access to markets and storage facilities for their produce.
He also cited 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 breakthroughj sector in order to diversify the Nigerian economy as well as mitigate the impact of global shock to the economy arising from volatility in the price of crude oil.
The CBN has created effective intervention schemes such as Anchor Borrowers' programme (ABP) and the Agribusiness, Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS) therefore, Nigerian youths have been urged to make ample use of this promising opportunities in order to make their own towards the country’s goal of addressing the challenge of rising demand for food, in spite of the progress made in the production of staple food items.
Emefiele also enumerated the impact of the Bank’s intervention in the agricultural sector in Nigeria, noting that the cumulative effect of the interventions had, among other things, assisted Nigeria to achieve progressive increase in agricultural outputs along major agricultural commodities. He therefore urged the graduating students to leverage the knowledge they had acquired at the school towards applying it in supporting further growth of Nigeria’s agricultural sector given its immense opportunities.
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).
The good news is, the CBN has offered the potential for collaboration with the university community in the multi billion dollars seed investment. He also declared the banks readiness to partner with Nigerian universities to achieve this objective, and urged them to set up demonstration farms in farming areas, where farmers can come and obtain knowledge on the right farming practices to adopt in order to increase their yields and output.
Meanwhile, the Mr. Godwin Emefiele was among five dignitaries conferred with honorary doctorate degrees by the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, in recognition of their outstanding contributions in various spheres of human endeavor.
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