Prof. Danbaba Danju, the Managing Director, Bank of Agriculture (BOA), says the bank is adopting electronic methods to identify real farmers in Nigeria for loans.
He said that the bank was using the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and Global Positioning System (GPS) to verify identity claims of farmers before granting them loans.
Danju made the remarks at All Nigerian Editors Conference (ANEC) in Port Harcourt on Friday.
He said the decision to explore such methods before granting loans to farmers was to act against fraud.
Danju said that many people from all walks of life who claimed to be farmers had been granted loans and defaulted in repayment in the past.
He said that the situation had made the bank to continue to go on debt collection.
“But now, we are trying to make sure that those who get loan are actually farmers.
‘’We are doing this through BVN where we can get the biometrics of people sourcing for loans and also the GPS to locate their farms.
Danju said that the bank was also providing micro loans and financing agro businesses, among other services.
He said that the bank was exploring a system where youths could be organised for mechanised farming.
He said that the bank had many branches in various locations in the country and was planning to scale up its operations to reach out to all local government areas.
Danju called for establishment of more universities of agriculture specialised to get the younger ones specialise on every aspect of agriculture to boost exportation of agriculture products.
The BOA boss had earlier presented a paper on Role of Banks in Agriculture Financing at the NGE conference.
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