Oceanic, Unity Bank earmark N21bn for agriculture

Two commercial banks, Oceanic and Unity Bank participating in Northern Agric Summit, have promised to commit over N21 billion to agric financing in the north during the next two years.

Officials of the two banks told The Tide's source in Kaduna that they were invited to partner with Northern state governments to increase lending to farmers in the region.

The Executive Director, Commercial Banking, of Unity Bank, Alhaji Lamis Dikko, said that the Bank had committed over N1 billion in financing unspecified numbers of farmers groups in six Northern states.

Dikko, however, declined to comment on how much interest rate were charged for the loans.

He said that the benefiting states included Zamfara, Katsina, Bauchi, Kaduna, Niger and Kano.

Dikko, who said that 95 per cent of the loans had been recovered, dismissed claims by officials of other commercial banks on the issue of high risk, saying Unity Bank was able to identify risk modules and block them.