Olam provides N536m interest free finance to Nigerian farmers

Olam Nigeria Limited, a leading agri-business company in Nigeria, has announced the provision of over N536 million as financing at zero interest rate to 12,000 Nigerian cocoa, cashew and sesame farmers under its Olam Livelihood Charter (OLC), which annual results have been announced. In a statement by Ade Adefeko, head, corporate and government relations, the firm said that as the OLC enters its fourth year, the charter sets stringent standards for supporting smallholder communities in Olam’s networks through eight principles.

The statement said the principles are financial support, improved yields, better labour practices, market access, improved crop quality, traceability, social investment and minimising environmental impact. It said only by meeting all eight of these principles can a sustainability programme be awarded OLC status.

According to the statement, three of Olam International’s 30 flagship OLC initiatives are in Nigeria, where Olam works with cashew, cocoa and sesame smallholder farmers. The statement noted that this programme is in collaboration with TechnoServe based in Washington and New York based Rainforest Alliance as well as other local agronomists in Nigeria. It said these and other initiatives provide zero interest financing and agri-inputs, training on good agricultural and labour practices, as well as social investment in the community.

The company said such investment include providing educational materials, creating bore wells for safe water, building a police station and school, development of local roads and the installation of solarpowered lighting. The statement said since the OLC’s launch in 2010, the number of Nigerian farmers benefitting from all eight OLC principles has risen to over 12,000 small-scale farmers, spanning almost 25,000 hectares of cultivated land. Highlights from 2014 OLC initiatives in Nigeria include working with 12,000 farmers in Osun, Ondo and Cross-River for cocoa.

Also, Kwara and Oyo farmers were assisted for the production of cashew while Jigawa, Bauchi, Nasarawa and Benue farmers were supported for sesame with about 18 percent of the total farmers being women. Other highlights included 24,140 hectares under cultivation, N536 million in finance to farmers including short-term micro financing, advances for crop purchases and mid-term loans for the procurement of farming inputs. Olam also gave a total of 578 training days to farmers for them to imbibe good agricultural practices, among others.

In his comment, Adamu Sani, a sesame farmer from Kirikasama village in Jigawa State, said “Olam Nigeria is the only company that has come to our village to conduct a workshop on training farmers”. “Not only that, they introduced improved sesame seeds which they distributed to farmers free of charge. More than 95 percent of my fellow villagers are benefitting from Olam Nigeria,” Sani said. In addition to the OLC programmes, Olam Nigeria has launched an outgrower programme around its rice farm in Nasarawa State, in collaboration with USAID and the National Agricultural Development Programme.