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Wednesday, September 23, 2020 / 09:50AM
/ Sterling Bank/Header Image Credit: GCMX
Three years ago, precisely
2018, leading commercial bank, Sterling Bank PLC organised its maiden edition
of Agriculture Summit Africa which attracted participation of stakeholders
across the value chain. Since then, the yearly event has become reputed for
opening partnership and investment opportunities for small- and large-scale
farmers across Nigeria and beyond.
After an impressive outing
during the 2019 summit, project consultant of Gezawa Commodity Market and
Exchange, in this interview, lauds Agriculture Summit Africa because of its
impact on the agricultural value chain. He shared the expectations of the Commodity
Exchange at the ongoing summit happening simultaneously in Lagos and Abuja this
week.
Can you give us brief biota of yourself?
My name is Binchang Binfa. I am the project consultant
of Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange (GCMX) located in Gezawa Local
Government of Kano State.
What aspect of agriculture are you
engaged in?
Like any other Commodity Exchange, GCMX focus for now
is on the agricultural sector even though the exchange will in the future deal
with other commodities such as, solid minerals, Precious stones, currencies and
oil and gas. For now, we are working seriously in the Agric space, we are into
primarily providing and enabling environment within our ecosystem where buyers
and sellers of commodities can trade efficiently.
Do you think that agriculture has a
prospect considering the status of the Nigerian economy?
We should not be talking about prospects because agriculture
should be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. We should not be talking about
prospects, rather how we can make agriculture to take the lead as the mainstay
of our economy.
Rightfully so, agriculture was adjudged
as the mainstay of Nigeria's economy. It appears we have had setbacks. What do
you think is responsible for this?
The discovery of oil brought us the setback we are
experiencing today. When oil was found, agriculture died because oil became a
cheap and easy source of revenue, all the states come to Abuja regularly for
subvention. This has made some states dependent on oil totally whereas
Agriculture will give more money than oil. The good news is now that the oil is
running away, agriculture must stage a comeback, because if you could remember
very well, we used to have groundnut pyramids. Where are they now? We used to
have cocoa and palm oil.
Today we are exporting dried cocoa seeds and bringing
back finished chocolate. Where are the cocoa factories now? This is the
challenge. Everybody now goes to Abuja to collect monthly allocation. I believe
now that government has decided to do the right thing about Agriculture, we
will be able to reset and then restore the economy back to where it was before.
What do you think are the major challenges
of agriculture in Nigeria today?
General challenges? One, with the farmers, the issue
of funding at the right time. When you bring money into agriculture, the
farmers should be the right people to get funding but a lot of times such
monies end up with traders and the story is the same with fertilizers, seedling
etc. At times a newborn baby, gets loans but the real people who are doing the
farming do not get the money.
That is the problem. And when a farmer fails, we will
say such a man has used the money to marry more wives. That is the story we
have been hearing for a long time, So, I feel that this government is trying to
correct this anomaly and to do the right thing and with companies like ours to
help them, restructure agric.
The government also need to attract investors, because
Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange pose to be the game changer in unbundling
agriculture for it to be attractive for investors, farmers, and financial
institutions.
Sterling Bank, in the whole of the
country is known for its high investment in the sector. For those farmers who
are not able to access funding, don't you think the problem has to do with
their improper profiling.
Poor profiling is part of it but, outside of
profiling, the people must be real farmers. Farmers can be profiled, and
farmers are always being profiled for crowdfunding and other funding
opportunities but why is it failing? That is the question we need to ask. Is it
because the wrong people are being profiled or what? Therefore, Government must
support Commodity exchanges, so that our farmers are not being exploited at the
farm gate.
In this issue, what do you think is the
role of the farmer's association?
Farmers association should do the right thing. Let me
give you an example of the first Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Farmers
forum in Kano in 2019 where the farmers were complaining of lack of funding
from Bank of Agriculture. The then Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture
who was present challenged the leadership of All Famers Association of Nigeria
(AFAN) Kano State Chapter to tell the farmers what they did with funds given to
the association for farmers. So, it is an issue of profiling the wrong people
seriously. If farmers association can play their role effectively, there will
be increase in production.
What was your experience with
Agriculture Summit Africa organised by Sterling Bank, what would you say you
were able to take out from it?
My take home was that the programme was timely because
it came at a time that Agriculture was facing another phase of development, and
it was an eye opener for a lot of us.
And the papers that were delivered were done very well
and the participants and the people that were invited to the summit were men
who also did justice to their topics.
And lastly, the planning was excellent, and I give
kudos to Sterling Bank. The event was done perfectly in an orderly manner, and
according to how a standard summit should be organized.
And, for me, I had several discussions with industry
experts, I made a lot of friends and prospective investors. it was a time of
networking for me and for many others who also attended the conference.
In clear terms, you have stated what you
have achieved as in business and as an individual. So, another edition is
coming up. What do you intend to achieve in this year’s edition?
The theme of the last year's summit was
"Agriculture-Your Piece of The Trillion-Dollar Economy" and the theme of this
year is "Fast Forward Africa: Exploiting the Next
Revolution". So, we are looking at moving forward and I believe that this year,
we would be able to build more synergy.
It will be better than last year because I know last
year, many were saying it was better than the previous year. So, I am expecting
that this year will be better organized than last year and a lot of packages
will be there for us. I expect something good and I also expect to make more
friends, business friends and then also to open the space for us to be able to
improve our business.
So, would you be considering investment
at this year's summit? I hope that you know what we call a deal room where
investors and Agriculture stakeholders meet. Where they get to discuss
investment opportunities and they get funding for their businesses.
Except the amount is increased, a commodity market and
exchange like ours, may not qualify because the amount is quite small, other
smaller companies along agricultural value chain can participate in the deal
room.
What message do you have for those
looking to grow their agriculture business?
The message I have for them is that the time has come
for us to join hands to take agriculture seriously. We can no longer sit inside
an air-conditioned room and expect crops to grow on top of the roof. They must
take it seriously, take it as a business.
With support and funding coming from Sterling Bank, I
want to believe that from the end of this year, we expect to see a rise in
non-oil exports drive of the Federal Government especially from the Agric
sector and also enhancing food security in the country. This will greatly
support President Muhammadu Buhari led Administration in the development of
Agriculture in Nigeria.
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