The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) is a Non-Bank Financial Institution wholly-owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) created to Redefine, Dimension, Measure, Re-Price and Share agribusiness-related credit risks in Nigeria.
Established in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), now Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), and Nigerian Bankers’ Committee in 2013, NIRSAL’s mandate is to stimulate the flow of affordable finance and investments into the agriculture sector by de-risking the agriculture & agribusiness finance value chain, fixing agricultural value chains, building long-term capacity, and institutionalizing incentives for agricultural lending through its five (5) strategic pillars, namely: Risk Sharing, Insurance, Technical Assistance, Incentives and Rating.
OUR MISSION: To forge partnerships between agriculture and finance; maximizing the potential of agriculture for food security, job creation and economic growth
OUR VISION: Transforming the Economy, Delivering Inclusive Growth and Impacting Lives
NIRSAL’S FIVE PILLARS
- Risk Sharing
- Insurance
- Technical Assistance
- Rating
- Incentive Mechanism
PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
As an organization, we recognize the importance of strategic partnerships as critical success factors for the delivery of our agricultural value chain fixing, financing and risk management mandate.
AGRICULTURAL VALUE CHAIN DEVELOPMENT: NIRSAL understands that de-risking agriculture and agriculture finance starts with achieving optimization and integration of all segments of the value chain. Consequently, NIRSAL partners with local and international private, public and developmental agricultural value chain players to provide the required equipment, technology and human capital for the upgrade, development and integration of agricultural value chains in Nigeria.
AGRICULTURE FINANCE AND INVESTMENT: Increasing access to finance and financial services by smallholder farmers and agricultural value chain actors is at the core of NIRSAL’s mandate. NIRSAL therefore partners with financial institutions, FinTechs, venture capitalists, angel investors, insurance actors, developmental finance agencies and other relevant stakeholders to unlock the flow of finance and investments to agriculture and agribusiness through joint development and deployment of financing frameworks and financial products within the ambits of NIRSAL’s monitoring and de-risking frameworks.
PROJECT SUPPORT SERVICES: In the formation, piloting and deployment of its game-changing models and agricultural value chain optimizing approaches and strategic initiatives, NIRSAL works with experts, specialists and other partners for hands-on field execution, geo-cooperative formation and effective project management.
POLICY AND ENABLING ENVIRONMENT: NIRSAL collaborates with Federal, State and Local Governments as well as Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government and other stakeholders to drive the agricultural promotion agenda.
NIRSAL encourages the creation of an enabling environment for agriculture through policy advocacy, policy dialogue and policy framework proposals, creating a link between the public and private sectors on agriculture and agribusiness issues.
NIRSAL supports sub-national governments for the exploitation of local agricultural potentials following clearly defined protocols of engagement.
NIRSAL CREDIT RISK GUARANTEE: The NIRSAL Credit Risk Guarantee (CRG) is a mechanism for de-risking agriculture and agribusiness financing in Nigeria. It is an instrument issued to protect financiers and investors from possible losses in finance/credit transactions. With the CRG, NIRSAL indemnifies lenders to or investors in agribusinesses of the principal and accrued Interest of loans given to the limit of a pre-agreed CRG rate.
The NIRSAL CRG and all its components is an incentive for financiers/investors to participate more comfortably and profitably in the agriculture sector, providing loans and other debt instruments to agricultural value chain actors.
Leveraging the NIRSAL CRG, Deposit Money Banks and other financiers have securely lent over ₦211 billion to producers of crops and livestock, processors, distributors, and providers of logistics services across agricultural value chains, with a loan crystallization rate of 1% in 10 years.
Operators of agribusinesses and their bankers can jointly explore the benefits of the NIRSAL CRG for increased access to finance, round-the-clock project monitoring, and the chance to receive up to 40% in interest rebates.
For more info visit www.nirsal.com
