Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari urged banks on Monday to boost lending to the agriculture sector, part of his drive to encourage diversification away from oil production in Africa's largest economy. Buhari also vowed to improve energy provision in a country long blighted by power shortages.
Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, has been hit hard by a fall in crude prices that has cut vital oil revenues - which account for 70 percent of national income - causing the economy to grow by just 2.8 percent in 2015, its slowest pace in decades. "Our real wealth is in farming, livestock, hatcheries, fishery, horticulture and forestry," Buhari told a gathering of the advisory National Economic Council (NEC) attended by Nigeria's 36 state governors, the budget minister and central bank governor. "Banks should be leaned upon to substantially increase their lending to the agricultural sector. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should bear part of the risk of such loans as a matter of national policy," he said.
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