The Bank of Industry (BOI) last week confirmed its readiness to disburse the N10billion, earmarked by the Federal Government intention to boost local production and processing of rice in the country, as soon as the fund is made available.

A spokesperson at the bank who commented on BOI's involvement in the project, stated that the management has been duly briefed on the purpose of the fund, noting, however, that the money was yet to be released to the institution.

The bank said that the modalities for the disbursement of the fund and the conditions for draw down by of prospective beneficiaries would be made available as soon as the funds get to the bank.

“Yes I am aware that the Federal Government has earmarked about N10billion to boost local production of rice, but at the moment the fund is yet to get to us, and so we are still waiting for it. It is only when we get approval to commerce disbursement of the facility that we can start talking about modalities for beneficiaries and who qualifies to access it.”
News of the latest Federal Government largesse to the rice initiative came about a fortnight ago from the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Engineer Charles Ugwu while speaking at the opening of a recent Corporate Nigeria Stakeholders forum in Lagos.

Ugwu who was represented at the occasion by Mr Odii Christopher Akpa, an Assistant Director in the Trade Promotion unit of the ministry, said the fund which is meant to finance mass production of rice in the 6 geopolitical zones of the country could be accessed through the Bank of Industry.

He hinted that interest payable on the facility would be cheaper and more affordable to greater majority of rice farmers across the country, than the regular commercial loans given by conventional banks.
According to the minister, the project was being pursued with vigour to ensure food security for the country, as the initiative would be achieved through the use of industrial clusters.

States selected to pioneer the initiative, according to the Minister, include Kebbi, Niger, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Taraba and Bayelsa, which are also expected to provide land space of 3 to 4 hectares, with government providing other needed infrastructure in all the cluster areas.

Part of the contributions President Yar'Adua intends to make to fast track the realization of this objective, he explained was to achieve the generation of about 3000mega watts of electricity this year, and about 6000megawatts in 2009, while efforts are being made to revive the rail transport sector in the country.

The minister called on corporate bodies, and individual investors with high reputation to embrace the initiative by accessing and utilizing the facility.
He stated that the Cluster and Industrial parks concept was another initiative being put in place by the ministry to stimulate economic activities and development in the country.

The rice initiative was adopted by the Federal Government as a deliberate strategy to boost local production of the commodity to reduce the citizens' heavy dependence on imported variants that gulp billions of naira in foreign exchange annually.
Nigeria which has huge potentials to be self sufficient in rice production, has for several years depended on Thailand, India, the USA and Europe to meet growing domestic demand for the commodity.