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POOR PERFORMANCE: FG to restructure Bank of Agriculture

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BPE says privitisation has freed up $3bn consumed by public enterprises annually

The Federal Government on Thursday revealed plans to restructure the Bank of Agriculture (BoA)

This was disclosed by the Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Alex Okoh, at the meeting for the recapitalisation of the bank in Abuja.

He explained that the bank had been performing sub-optimally due to the myriad of challenges it faced since inception in 1972.

Part of the restructuring would include a divestment of 60 per cent of its stakes.

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He said: “The process will lead to the privatisation of equity of the bank.We envisage that the Central Bank equity will be reduced to 20 per cent, Federal Ministry of Finance (incorporated) will be reduced to 20 per cent.

‘’The government agencies equity in the new bank will be a minority of 40 per cent. We will then invite private sector investors who will own 20 per cent and the remaining 40 per cent equity will be owned by farmers and farmers’ cooperatives,” he said in a statement endorsed by Head, Public Communications, BPE, Amina Tukur Othman.

Okoh said the new model, fashioned after the Agriculture Bank of China and Rabobank of the Netherlands which, would transform it strictly into an agricultural finance bank with functional branches in all the local government areas and major towns in the country.

This would also encourage farmers to form clusters of cooperatives and thrift societies throughout the six geo-political zones for the purpose of participating in the ownership of the Bank.

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