The Bank of Agriculture (BOA) at the weekend lamented its undercapitalisation. The situation, the bank said, has undermined its capacity to fully deliver over the years.
Its Managing Director, Mohammed Santuraki, in a statement in Kaduna, disclosed that since the bank merged with the Peoples’ Bank in 2000, it has only received N30 Billion out of the approved N50 Billion share capital in 13 installments.
Despite the undercapitalisation, Santuraki said the sole agricultural finance institution has granted over N44 billion in loans to about 550,000 agricultural and rural enterprises in 11 years.
Over 6 millions jobs, he added, have been created in the process.
The bank chief stated this was possible through creative leveraging of the available resources and strategic alliances, pointing out that the management was ready for the president’s initiative to restructure the bank for effective performance.
According to him, the Federal Government’s efforts in this regard will propel the institution’s transformation programme aimed at refocusing the institution on its core mandate of agricultural and rural financing, reviewing operating model , modernisation and retraining of manpower to create a more sustainable and impactful institution.
Santuraki explained the institution’s Information Technology Architecture has been redesigned to accommodate mobile and agency banking operations with a view to increasing and improving its services considering the diverse spread of farmers across the nooks and crannies of the country.
