Nigeria - Capacity building and institutional strengthening of Bank Of Agriculture (BOA)

The project is a MIC-TAF grant not exceeding UA 715,328 awarded to Bank of Agriculture of Nigeria (BOA) to help in its restructuring phase and make it regionally competitive. BOA is Nigeria’s premier agricultural and rural Development Finance Institution 100% wholly own by the Federal Government of Nigeria (40% by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and 60% by the Federal Ministry of Finance). It has over the years been bedeviled with challenges that hamper the full realization the objectives for which it was established. Thus, a complete restructuring is required in its core operation of lending to the sector, human resource and risk management. Some of the challenges includes: (i) weak and deteriorating financial performance indicators; (ii) weak systems and institutional capacity; (iii) weak operating model. The proposed grant will be used to elaborate a sound strategy for BOA’s restructuring rather than the restructuring process itself. The grant will support BOA in the following areas: (i) Diagnostic of BOA’s operations and market analysis; (ii) Review of BOA’s operations; (iii) Review of institutional set up; (iv) Institutional Capacity Building in selected aspects to kick start or fast-track reform based on outcome of analysis. BOA’s transformation into a stronger institution will yield better provision of financial services to farmers, contributing to achieving the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. Implementation is estimated to be completed within 24 months.