As part of efforts to reposition the state’s economy, the Kwara State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed, has said the state government was working on strategies that will encourage commercial banks to play greater roles in the financing of its economic development programmes.
Governor Ahmed gave this indication when the Group Managing Director of First City Monument Bank, Ladi Balogun, and his management team paid him a courtesy visit.
He said commercial banks would be expected to expand their funding windows of agriculture for agribusiness in the state.
He said: “Agriculture is gradually been de-risked.
“So it is making it quite enabling for prospective investors to come in here to see how to take advantage of what we have on ground.
“We have tried to make it as private sector driven as possible.
“We have quite a few individuals who have invested in processing, which of course creates a lot of room for backward integration that a lot of farmers now go into structured large scale farming culture.”
Ahmed stressed that the prevailing economic challenges in the country make it expedient to explore various strategies in financing economic development.
Responding, Balogun said the bank was exploring new ways of assisting the Kwara State Government in improving its Internally Generated Revenue.
According to him, the bank was ready to take similar initiative of cooperating with the state government in financing agriculture.