NIGERIA (Plateau)—Succor came the way of Plateau Fadama III Farmers’ yesterday when the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina donated N10 million to aid the establishment of Fadama Micro-finance Bank.

The bank is a brain child of the Fadama III farmers who contributed five percent of their savings to set it up, to enable them to get a one digit interest loan to finance the farming business.

Speaking during a state tour to assess agriculture facilities in the state, the minister lauded the initiative by the farmers, comprising 75 percent women, and assured them of the Federal Government’s continuous support.

 “You have all made savings of about N60 million to be able to get your bank all across the various areas that you are, let me say that from my ministry, we will contribute N10 million.

“If you look at the repayment rate of loans, 98 percent of women pay back the loan facilities they get and therefore women are actually the people you should be banking in because they pay back.

“We are going to work actively with you to help in this finance,’’ he said.

According to him, investing in women secures the life of a household and the destiny of a country and therefore, more support should be given to boost their farming activities.

The Minister was conducted around the Agricultural Services Training and Centre (ASTC) at Kassa/Vom, by Mr. Steven Barko, who is the Plateau State Commissioner for Agriculture.

Barko said that the Kassa ASTC was one of the three centres established in collaboration with an Israeli company to boost agriculture in the state.

He added that ASTCs rendered variety of services to farmers ranging from provision of tractors to marketing of finished products.