NADF MOVES TO EXPAND ACCESS TO NON-INTEREST AGRICULTURAL FINANCING
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By: Fasasi Hammad
The National Agricultural Development Fund has begun the validation of its proposed Non-Interest Finance Framework and Guidelines as part of efforts to expand access to agricultural financing and advance the Federal Government’s food security objectives.
NADF disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday following a Strategic Roundtable and Validation Session held on the proposed framework and guidelines.
The initiative, according to the statement, is designed to ensure that farmers, agribusinesses and other stakeholders across the agricultural value chain can access a wider range of innovative financing options.
The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of NADF, Mohammed Ibrahim, said non-interest finance had become an important part of Nigeria’s financial system, offering ethical, asset-backed and risk-sharing financing models that complement conventional finance.
“Our objective is not simply to introduce another financing framework. It is to broaden the financing ecosystem for agriculture by ensuring that every credible financing option is available to Nigerian farmers, agribusinesses, and other value chain actors,” Ibrahim said.
The statement noted that the proposed framework would establish a structured and transparent basis for implementing agricultural interventions through licensed non-interest financial institutions, while also institutionalising governance, operational and Shari’ah compliance standards.
Ibrahim explained that the documents were intentionally presented as drafts to enable stakeholders to review them and contribute their expertise before they are finalised.
“Today’s gathering marks an important milestone in that journey,” he said, urging participants to critically assess the draft documents, question assumptions where necessary and provide practical insights based on their experiences.
The statement also quoted the Director of the Development Finance Advisory Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr Paul Oluikpe, as saying that more work was required to improve access to agricultural finance in the country.
Oluikpe welcomed the proposed non-interest finance framework, describing it as an opportunity to bring an often-overlooked aspect of agricultural financing into the mainstream.
“With the non-interest finance framework that is being looked at and validated today, it’s really a key opportunity for us to bring in that particular dimension, because oftentimes it’s overlooked,” he said.
Also speaking, the Deputy Chairman of the CBN’s Financial Regulation Advisory Council of Experts, Professor Bashir Aliyu Umar, said the proposed framework aligned with efforts to promote financial inclusion and broaden access to finance.
“What we are witnessing today is also following this trajectory of financial inclusion and easing access to finance and having a level playing field and even developmental perspective for the whole country whereby no segment of society is left out,” he said.
Giving an overview of the initiative, NADF’s Head of Investment, Olalekan Alabi, said the framework and guidelines were developed to create a structured mechanism for deploying non-interest financing to eligible agricultural activities and value-chain interventions.
“Together, the Framework and Guidelines are expected to provide clarity on how NADF’s non-interest financing interventions will be structured, assessed, approved, implemented, monitored and reported,” Alabi said.
He added, “We are not here simply to confirm that the documents have been prepared. We are here to test their technical robustness and practical applicability.”
Alabi said stakeholders were expected to identify gaps, inconsistencies, overlaps and areas requiring further clarification before the documents were finalised.
“Our objective is to have a set of Framework and Guidelines that are clear, technically sound, operationally practical, appropriately governed and capable of supporting NADF’s non-interest agricultural financing interventions,” he said.
The statement said the validation session brought together representatives of government institutions and regulatory agencies, development partners, non-interest finance experts, financial institutions and other stakeholders across the agricultural and financial sectors.
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