BOA strengthens support for women farmers, targets agricultural input access gap

The Bank of Agriculture (BOA) is intensifying its efforts to support women farmers by broadening their access to agricultural finance and inputs, according to a recent statement. This move aims to enhance production, bolster livelihoods, and bolster women's participation in the agricultural value chain. Women are recognized as the backbone of Nigeria's agricultural economy, with estimates suggesting they comprise up to 70% of the agricultural workforce.

However, their potential remains largely untapped due to persistent barriers including limited access to finance, inputs, technology, mechanization, and markets.

World Bank data indicates that closing the access gap between men and women in productive resources could significantly boost women's yields and agricultural output nationwide. BOA's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ayodeji Sotinrin, emphasized that expanding agricultural finance should go hand in hand with understanding the specific needs of farmers to remain productive.

He added that women are already contributing substantially to agriculture and the food system, and the bank's role is to ensure that the systems around them provide a better opportunity for them to produce, grow, and participate in the value chain.

BOA recently engaged a group of women farmers in Bwari Area Council, Federal Capital Territory, and provided them with agricultural inputs, reflecting its broader commitment to understanding and addressing the realities farmers face. The bank's approach is encapsulated in its Renewed Hope Smallholder Support & Value Chain Fund, which is working with farmer aggregation companies to integrate over two million smallholder farmers into a structured Federal Government-backed on-lending framework.

This model combines financing with inputs, agronomic support, and offtake arrangements to increase production rather than merely increasing credit volumes.

BOA is also widening access to affordable finance through a N250bn facility designed to provide single-digit financing to smallholder farmers, and its recent N1.5tn recapitalization is expected to significantly enhance its capacity to reach more farmers and deepen agricultural lending. The bank's Guaranteed Minimum Price Aggregation Programme connects farmers producing selected commodities to structured aggregation, accredited warehouses, and guaranteed offtake, offering greater certainty around market prices for their produce.

Through these interventions, BOA aims to make agricultural finance more meaningful to farmers by connecting capital to their specific production needs, thereby contributing to increased food production, strengthened food security, and more resilient agricultural value chains in Nigeria.