Good News To All Those That Have Applied For SEIFAC: SEIFAC enlightens members on modus operandi, awaits CBN disbursement.
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Seifac loan |
The National Programme Coordinator of Smallholder Economic Interest Farmers Agricultural Cooperative (SEIFAC), Mr. Patrick Abur has enlightened members on the modus operandi of the cooperative.
The Coordinator while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Thursday cautioned members to be law abiding to reap the benefits of the Organization as he exposed them to the advantages of cluster farmers.
Abur appealed to members to exercise patience as the management has played it’s part by fulfilling the guidelines of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) while waiting for disbursement any moment soon.
He said “we have strong believe that the disbursement will be made in due course noting that SEIFAC on its part as a facilitator has fulfilled all the criteria enshrined in the CBN Anchor Borrower’s Programme Guidelines. This however calls for unwavering patience on the part of our members.”
The SEIFAC boss emphasized that their major objectives is to organize the Nigerian Smallholder Farmers who are scattered, less informed and ravaged by hunger and poverty like a stranded sheep without a herd and flock.”
According to him a group of Smallholder Farmers analyzed the worrisome situation of the Nigerian Smallholder Farmers and came up with the strategy of cluster farming called Agricultural Production Cluster (Agro-PC) having understudied the concept from developed and developing countries for a good number of years and believed on the adoption of same in the Nigerian context shall proffer a lasting solution to the plights of the Smallholder Farmers which the prototype domiciled the ownership of SEIFAC and her members.
Faced with constant productivity and market pressures, the ‘new agriculture’ needs tools to enhance its competitiveness and innovation capacity.
Cluster policies are argued to be crucial for small-scale farmers and agribusiness, as they enable them to engage in higher productivity, and more market oriented and higher value-added production. Accordingly, central and local governments have discovered that cluster farming promotion is a valuable tool to support agricultural enterprises in their territory and help them link to global agricultural value chains in a more efficient and sustainable manner.
Vision.
To attain ‘self-food sufficiency’, peaceful and prosperous, effective and cohesive Nigeria by the Smallholder Farmers community.
To position the smallholder farmers on a pedestal in which the Smallholder Farmer would benefit from every intervention performance.
SEIFAC’s aim is to make these clusters/cooperative societies to become economically and democratically strong for professionalized services to the farming community to ensure an empowered rural Nigeria and Africa at large by lifting the Smallholder Farmers out of avoidable poverty.
Mission.
To enable the Nigerian Smallholder Farmers to prosper through timely supply of reliable, high quality agricultural inputs and services in an environmentally sustainable manner and to undertake other activities to improve their welfare’.
To represent, lobby, mobilize, organize, manage and advocate for Smallholder Farmers’ interest and build their capacities to engage in crop enterprises that would be to their best interest.
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Overall Objectives.
SEIFAC is a multi-crops producer, processor and marketing Smallholder Economic Interest Farmers Agricultural Cooperative that connects Smallholder Farmers that cultivate these crops namely Rice, Maize, Sesame, Cassava, Yam, Groundnuts, Bambaranuts, Sorghum, Soybean and Wheat in the states of the Federation and FCT Abuja, to farm in clusters and to leverage on the collective internal economies of scale of cluster dynamics in order to lift themselves out of avoidable poverty.
Loan Limit;
The maximum loan limit for each eligible farmer under the Programme, shall be decided based on CBN ratified Economics of Production (EOP) and validated land size.
Interest Rate.
The Programme shall be administered at the prevailing interest rate for intervention funds as prescribed by the CBN from time to time.
Tenor;
The tenor of loans under the Programme shall be based on the gestation period of the targeted commodity.
(i) Joint and cross-guarantee of members;
(ii) Equity contribution by the farmers of a minimum of 10 per cent of the loan amount as lien with the PFI;
(iii) Salary domiciliation of beneficiaries for workers cooperatives; iv. Personal guarantees of the leadership (Executives and Board of Trustees) supported by individual statements of net worth;
(v) Executed Global Standing Instruction (GSI) mandate;
(vi) Title on farmland;
(vii) All assets debenture which shall be registered with NCR.
Eligibility Criteria – Smallholder Farmer Smallholder Farmer shall:
(i) be a member of a farmer group;
(ii) have a bank account with the PFI;
(iii) provide a valid Bank Verification Number (BVN);
(iv) not be a defaulting borrower; (v) have a validated farmland;
(vi). provide 10 per cent minimum equity contribution; (vii) not participate under multiple associations in one cropping season.
SEIFAC’s Implementation Strategy.
The cumbersomeness involved in chasing individual beneficiaries who farm on their respective pieces of land as beneficiaries under ABP over loan recovery has always ended in a loss. In a bit to curtail this dilemma, SEIFAC has adopted the cluster farming approach as the best farming methodology on the ABP implementation where SEIFAC Member Farmers will have to farm on contiguous piece(s) of land spanning several thousands of hectares depending on the availability of land at such cluster location.
The management will also wish to refer her members to conduct a quick review on SEIFAC at www.seifac.org where you may understand that SEIFAC is implementing the CBN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme an agricultural expansion programme of apex bank — CBN launched in 2015.
CBN is the sole financer of the ABP and until CBN disburses (CBN’s disbursement under ABP is in kind (inputs) and not in cash (money) SEIFAC as a cooperative is just a platform for accessing the loan facility in this instance. For more detailed information, go to Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) Guidelines (Revised Guidelines) September, 2021.