The German government, through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit has disbursed over N9 billion under the Agricultural Finance project in Northwest Nigeria to support improve access to finances by farmers and agribusinesses in the Northwest states.
The Cluster Coordinator for Agriculture and Rural Development at GIZ, Dr. Andrea Ruediger, stated this during the Northwest regional close-out event themed “Scaling Agricultural Finance in Nigeria: From Proven Models to Market Expansion.
Ruediger said the AgFIN program, implemented across Kano, Kaduna, and Kebbi States, was designed to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing agriculture: limited access to finance.
She explained that the project, which spanned an eight-year period, worked closely with 11 financial institutions to help the farmers and agribusinesses recognise the untapped potential within agriculture and to develop tailored financial products for key value chains such as maize and potato production, including input credit schemes.
Ruediger described the project as a transformative intervention in the agricultural sector.
“With a budget of €8 million, the project successfully facilitated €42 million, about N9 billion, in financing.”
“Importantly, these were entirely commercial loans, with no grants or concessional funding. The success came from strong business models, targeted training, and innovative financial product development, making it both market-driven and sustainable,” she said.
Ruediger highlighted inspiring success stories among beneficiaries, noting that some agribusiness owners who started with small-scale operations, such as single-unit rice processing, have grown into large enterprises, saying, “Many have accessed multiple loans, repaid consistently, expanded operations, and now employ dozens of workers while managing integrated processing systems.”
She urged beneficiaries to sustain the momentum by continuing to grow their businesses and improve their livelihoods.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of National Agricultural Extension and Research Services, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Yusuf Sani, described the initiative as a breakthrough in agricultural development.
Representing the Executive Director, Prof. Jamil Abdullahi noted that access to finance has long constrained farmers’ ability to engage in production, processing, and value addition.
“With AgFIN, farmers are now better linked to sources of credit and trained on how to access and manage financing effectively,” he said. “This project goes beyond intervention; it is a transmission of knowledge that has built lasting capacity among farmers and stakeholders.”
Professor Sani, however, cautioned that the project’s gains could diminish without deliberate efforts to sustain them. He called on participating state governments to adopt and scale the initiative rather than treat it as a completed program.
At the event, Dr. Abiodun Ezekiel Owoyemi, Director of Academic Planning and Linkages at the Federal College of Agricultural Produce Technology, said the institution’s partnership with GIZ since 2023 has yielded lasting benefits.
Representing the Provost, he revealed that over 300 students have been trained under the program, while 20 lecturers participated in “training of trainers” initiatives, adding that the collaboration has also led to the development of a specialised curriculum now embedded in key departments, including Agricultural Technology, Agricultural Extension, and Agribusiness.
In their separate goodwill messages, Honourable Bilkisu Suleiman Ibrahim, Special Adviser on Banking and Finance to the Governor of Katsina State, Dikko Umaru Radda, and the representative of Kano State Commissioner of Livestock, Dr. Abubakar Sani Inuwa, stressed the need for farmers to take advantage of available financial opportunities.
One of the beneficiaries of the GIZ AgFIN Project, Hafsatu Muhammed, a smallholder farmer from Chiromawa in Garun Mallam Local Government Area, shared a compelling account of how access to agricultural finance transformed her livelihood.
