The Bank of Agriculture (BOA) has called for enhanced climate financing from developed nations to back agricultural adaptation projects in Nigeria and throughout Africa. This appeal was made by BOA’s Managing Director and CEO, Ayo Sotinrin, during the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Türkiye.
Sotinrin highlighted that Nigeria and other African countries urgently require financial support to combat the adverse effects of climate change on agriculture. The bank is considering partnerships and financing arrangements to introduce impactful climate adaptation solutions focused on agricultural transportation and irrigation.
Currently, the BOA is looking to introduce electric cargo tricycles, which can carry up to 2,000 kilograms of agricultural produce in one trip, vastly outperforming traditional fossil-fuel-powered two-wheelers that can transport only 50 kilograms. Sotinrin stated, “We are introducing electric cargo tricycles that can actually move 2,000kg from farms to the farm gate at once, rather than the fossil-fuel-powered two-wheelers that move only 50kg.”
Furthermore, the bank plans to enhance solar-powered irrigation systems using one-to-five-horsepower pumps and subsurface pumps, which would allow farmers to cultivate their land at least three times a year. Sotinrin remarked that this initiative could potentially boost productivity by as much as 300 percent.
The CEO emphasized the transformative potential of these initiatives for agricultural production, addressing climate change challenges. He expressed disappointment over the unmet previous climate financing promises and urged for more substantial commitments from world leaders. “My takeaway from COP is refreshed commitments from world leaders,” he noted, critiquing the existing commitments as insufficient for maintaining global warming below 2.5 degrees Celsius.
Sotinrin stressed the necessity for increased funding from developed countries to Africa through various blended financing instruments that include grants, commercial capital, and development finance for supporting climate adaptation projects.
On the subject of agricultural financing access, he explained that the BOA had digitized many of its processes to make financial resources more reachable for farmers. However, the bank has shifted its strategy away from offering microcredit directly to individuals, now preferring to work through cooperatives and farmer aggregation companies to facilitate loans.
“If you tell me to finance individual farmers, it’s very difficult,” Sotinrin stated, underlining the challenges the bank faces in managing loans for the vast number of individual farmers across its 110 branches. “And if we don’t recover those monies, we erode our shareholder capital and we’re back to square one,” he added.
