Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC, a subsidiary of Standard Bank Group, has pledged to continue to provide support for key players and investors in Nigeria’s agricultural sector; especially in the area of funding.

Stanbic IBTC recently sponsored the “Agric-tech youth empowerment” Masterclass at this year’s edition of Social Media Week Lagos.

Wole Oshin, Acting Head, AgricBusiness, Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC, revealed that the financial institution is providing support for the agricultural sector through various intervention funds such as the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers Programme. According to him, such interventionist projects are geared towards helping small scale farmers boost production of their agricultural commodities. He also noted that the initiative would aid small farmers to grow from subsistence production to commercial production level.

He said: “Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC is working closely with a lot of the fintech companies to also provide some of our financial solutions through the agricultural value chain”; adding that youths that are interested in making a livelihood out of agriculture should take advantage of such strategic partnerships.

Oshin further reiterated the need to further deploy technology into agriculture to boost productivity with minimal human efforts. Illustrating his point, he said: “The maximum production of maize in Nigeria annually is less than five million metric tons, we can achieve more by deploying technology to support agricultural production.”

Other panelists at the masterclass were Segun Oworu, Digital Farming Project Lead, Bayer Middle Africa Ltd and Angel Adelaja-Kuye, Consultant to the Governor of Ogun State on Agriculture. The session was anchored by Aliu Iyanuoluwa, CEO/Co-founder, Myfarmbase Africa.

During the session, Dr. Angel Adelaja-Kuye stressed the need for participants to actively get involved in agriculture, noting that people can make money not only as producers of agricultural products but also by tapping into the vast opportunities that are available through the agricultural value chain.

Similarly, Segun Oworu told the participants to embrace technology, being an enabler, in agricultural production in order to spend less and make more profit.