The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (GCFR), Muhammadu Buhari has signed the National Agricultural Development Fund bill (NADF) into law.
Dr. Mahmood Abubakar, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, announced this yesterday in Abuja and stated that the NADF would receive funding from a 0.5% deduction from the Natural Development Resources Fund and a 5% deduction from the duty assessed on the importation of rice, wheat, sugar, milk, poultry, and fish.
According to him, Governments at all levels of the federation, would provide special intervention funds and take-off grants as long as the necessary monies were budgeted by the National Assembly to fulfill the provisions of the Act creating the NADF.
The Minister said: “The NADF governing board shall consist of the chairman, and a representative from federal Ministries of finance, budget, planning, and Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), science and technology with others from Federal Inland Revenue Service, farmers’ representative and major stakeholders in the agricultural sector.”
The establishment of the National Agricultural Development Fund as a financial intervention institution to support strategic aspects of the sector’s development in order to make up for the agriculture sector’s inadequate funding was approved by the upper and lower houses of the National Assembly on July 27, 2022.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Forum for Agricultural Commodities Association (FACAN) Alhaji Sadiq Deware has hailed the President for the intervention by signing the national agricultural development fund bill into law and also commended the national assembly for the passage of the bill, which they described as the bedrock for farmers.
According to FACAN Chairman, the signing of the NADF into law demonstrates the President’s concern for Nigerian farmers’ predicament.
He insisted that the NADF would increase access to financial interventions without the banking system’s bureaucracy.
