Apex bank appoints Directors for Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL)

Mr Godwin Emefiele, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday, approved the appointments of Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed as Managing Director, and Mr Babjide Arowosafe as Executive Director for NIRSAL.

This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Ibrahim Mu’azu, the Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, and published on the apex bank’s Website..

The statement said that Abdulhameed holds a B.Sc. Degree in Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and a Masters Degree in Public Administration with specialisation in public policy.

"He also holds an executive masters certificate in project management from the Project Management College (UK).

"He has over 22 years experience in corporate agribusiness and in the field of agricultural finance and risk management.

"Mr. Abdulhameed is currently an executive team member of NIRSAL Plc,’’ the statement said.

According to the statement Arowosafe has a first degree in agriculture and a master degree in agricultural policy and administration.

It said that Arowosafe had wide-ranging experience in agriculture and micro-enterprises having worked in these fields for both the World Bank and the United Nations.

"Most recently, Mr Arowosafe was the commissioner for agriculture and natural resources in Ekiti state,’’ the statement said.

It added that in addition to many other functions, the company essentially administers a Risk Sharing Fund.

It noted that the fund was designed to identify, redefine, measure, re-price and evolve strategies to de-risk and catalyse lending to the Nigerian agriculture value chain.

The statement explained that NIRSAL was an initiative of the CBN, the Bankers Committee (BC) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (FMA&RD).