The Federal Government has entered into a strategic partnership with the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) to expand economic opportunities for vulnerable Nigerians through agricultural financing, productive assets and sustainable livelihood interventions.
The partnership was formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction and the Bank of Agriculture, providing a framework for both institutions to combine their resources and expertise to improve the livelihoods of vulnerable households across the country.
Speaking on the significance of the agreement, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr. Bernard M. Doro, said the partnership was anchored on the need to move beyond short-term humanitarian assistance towards sustainable economic empowerment.
“We have something to bring to this partnership, and you too have something definitely to bring,” Doro said.
The Minister identified the National Social Register as one of the Ministry’s major strengths, noting that it contains information on about 20 million vulnerable households, representing approximately 80 million individuals.
According to him, the Register, which he described as the largest in Africa, provides government with a valuable platform for accurately targeting interventions. He added that more than 10 million individuals captured in the database had so far been validated using their National Identification Numbers (NIN).
Doro explained that inclusion in the Register follows a rigorous process involving vulnerability assessment, community-based targeting, data collection, verification and analysis, stressing that community participation was crucial because poverty manifests differently across communities.
He said the partnership with BOA would help translate the Ministry’s data and ongoing reforms into practical economic opportunities by connecting verified vulnerable Nigerians with agricultural financing, productive inputs, enterprise opportunities and other livelihood interventions.
The Minister said the collaboration was also part of the Ministry’s efforts to improve coordination in humanitarian interventions and poverty reduction, eliminate duplication, reduce wastage and leakages, and ensure greater impact from available resources through the One Humanitarian, One Poverty Response System (OHOPRS).
Under the MoU, both institutions will collaborate on poverty reduction programmes, agricultural financing, humanitarian interventions, social investment programmes, livelihood restoration, financial inclusion, women’s economic empowerment, youth development, climate resilience, skills acquisition, rural development, food security, digital financial services, value-chain development and enterprise development.
The partnership is expected to strengthen the transition of vulnerable households from short-term humanitarian support to sustainable economic participation by increasing their productive capacity and access to income-generating opportunities.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Bank of Agriculture, Mr. Ayodeji Oludare, said the bank would support vulnerable Nigerians through appropriate agricultural financing, inputs and other interventions aimed at increasing productivity.
Oludare said the bank could provide agricultural inputs such as fertiliser and seeds, while also developing profiles for participating farmers to assess their economic activities and establish appropriate credit-scoring mechanisms that could improve their access to finance.
He stressed that the BOA’s commitment would go beyond a single intervention, assuring that the bank would continue to explore funding opportunities and ways to expand the partnership into a sustainable solution for vulnerable Nigerians.
Under the agreement, the Ministry will facilitate access to eligible beneficiaries, coordinate relevant humanitarian and social protection programmes, engage government institutions and stakeholders, provide policy guidance and support programme implementation.
The Bank of Agriculture, on its part, will develop appropriate financing interventions, agricultural financing solutions, financial inclusion initiatives, value-chain financing and financial products tailored to the needs of vulnerable groups.
The bank will also provide financial advisory and technical expertise and participate, where appropriate, in programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
A major component of the partnership is the use of verified beneficiary data to improve the targeting of agricultural and livelihood interventions, allowing beneficiaries to be profiled according to their circumstances, economic activities and specific needs.
The collaboration is also expected to create opportunities for the mobilisation of resources and engagement with development partners, donor agencies, private-sector organisations and multilateral institutions to scale up agreed programmes.
The partnership is further linked to the proposed Nigeria Poverty Resilience Fund (NPRF), which seeks to connect verified vulnerable households on the National Social Register with productive opportunities, including agricultural inputs, affordable credit and structured value chains.
The broader objective is to enable vulnerable households to transition from receiving assistance to building productive capacity, generating income and strengthening their resilience to poverty and economic shocks.
The three-year MoU, renewable upon mutual agreement, provides an institutional framework for sustained collaboration between the Ministry and the Bank of Agriculture towards delivering measurable improvements in the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable Nigerians.
