BY ROSEMARY ONUOHA

Newly inaugurated board members of parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have been urged to add value to the operations and effectiveness of their respective agencies, in order to achieve the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government.

Responding on behalf of the board members, Barrister Chioma Ohakim, at the inauguration ceremony in Abuja, tasked the members to justify their appointments adding that “The spirit of team work and self sacrifice should be imbibed by all of us, while the culture of business as usual must be jettisoned.”

Ohakim who is the Chairperson of the Board of the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) pledged that “We are all determined to leave a lasting legacy for posterity, so that we scale-up the operations and service delivery of all the agencies of government.”

She also called on NAIC staff and management to team up with the new board towards forging ahead, saying “Our board would go the extra-mile with the view to ensuring and sustaining government support to enable NAIC to operate optimally for the benefit of farmers nationwide.”

She charged NAIC management to ensure that all categories of farmers, especially the small farm holders are carried along by NAIC, adding that extension services should be regularly organized to up-date farmers with modern farming techniques towards maximizing farm yields and therefore attain food security in the country.

Receiving the new board, Dr Tijjani Garba, Managing Director of NAIC, explained that the entire staff had great expectations of the board, given the high caliber of technocrats and profile of the persons that constituted the board.

He further pledged the total support of all the staff and management of NAIC, adding that the- staff have already keyed into the Federal Government transformation agenda, by the re-engineering efforts of the management, towards up-scaling NAIC service delivery to farmers, especially in the critical areas of prompt claims payment and extension services to its clientele across the country.

Garba pleaded with the new board members to leverage their wealth of experiences and goodwill on the Corporation, especially in the area of payment of premium subsidy by both the Federal and State Governments, with the view to adequately fund NAIC to offer optimal services to the teaming farming populace nationwide, adding that the high risks in agricultural ventures required NAIC to underwrite farmlands and settle claims promptly to enable farmers stay in business.