The Senior Special Adviser to the President on Agriculture, Andrew Kwasari, recently disclosed that the Federal Government is planning to borrow $1.2bn from the Dutch Bank and the Development Bank of Brazil to provide for mechanised agriculture in Nigeria.

According to Mr Kwasari, the initiative was under the Green Imperative Project of government.

He said, “The Green Imperative will address issues of mechanisation and provide agro-processing. These two will work together through service centres that will be created in each Local Government Area in Nigeria.

“This project is a private sector driven one. So all the service centres will be operated by private entrepreneurs and they will have the responsibility of servicing the loan.”

Kwasari added, “The Green Imperative is a borrowing programme that will inject foreign direct investment of €995m, that is $1.2bn.

“This has been structured financially to allow the government use bilateral negotiation and arrive at a financing that is below three per cent per annum interest rate and a gestation period of about 15 years to be paid.”

He said the loan had been insured in the insurance market and that financing was coming from the Dutch Bank and Development Bank of Brazil, while the fund was insured by the Islamic Development Bank.