BY EBUN SESSOU

The Management of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA)  said the under-capitalization  of the bank over the years  undermined its capacity to fully deliver on its mandate, just as it  disclosed that it has only received  N30billion in 13  installments out  of N50billion approved share capital since the merger of its legacy institutions in 2000.

These challenges notwithstanding, the BOA Chief Executive informed that the bank has within the last 11 years granted over N44billion loans to about 550,000 agricultural and rural enterprises, creating about 6 million jobs over the period. This he said has been possible through the creative leveraging of the available resources and strategic alliances.

The Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Mohammed Santuraki, who disclosed this while speaking on the  the proposed restructuring of the institution by the Federal Government, commended President  Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to  recapitalize and restructure the institution.

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He noted that the Federal Government’s efforts in this regard would certainly propel the institution’s transformation program, which commenced when the current Management took office 2 years ago.

The effort, according to the BOA chief is aimed at refocusing the institution on its core mandate of  agricultural and rural finance, reviewing the bank’s operating model , modernizing the institution, and the retraining of the staff to create a more sustainable institution.

Accordingly, the BOA is now positioned to review its operating model to conform with the international best practices of successful agriculture development finance institutions worldwide. This, he said, has reflected in the review of the bank’s processes, procedures and branch network operations.

Speaking further, Santuraki said the institution’s Information Technology architecture has been redesigned to accommodate mobile and agency banking operations to increase and improve the reach of the bank’s services considering the diverse spread of farmers across the nooks and crannies of the country.