The Bank of Agriculture (BOA) has unveiled a broad reform agenda to modernise agricultural financing, expand financial inclusion in rural communities and strengthen support for Nigeria’s food security drive.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Ayodeji Sotinrin, said the strategy focuses on upgrading the institution’s operations, improving transparency in intervention programmes and widening access to affordable credit for smallholder farmers.

Sotinrin said the BOA would deepen collaboration with state governments, input suppliers and development partners to improve the delivery of agricultural financing and accelerate sector growth.

As part of the initiative, the Bank recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to align its revitalisation efforts with the Integrated Smart States Programme (ISSP). The partnership is expected to attract blended and climate finance into agriculture while supporting the Federal Government’s One Million Hectare Tree Crop Initiative to boost commercial farming, job creation and exports.

“Our vision is to deploy capital in an intelligent, smart and highly efficient way to reposition the Bank as a catalyst for food security and rural prosperity,” Sotinrin said, adding that the institution aims to bring more young farmers into the formal financial system.

To improve accountability in government-backed agricultural interventions, the BOA has introduced a new digital verification framework that combines Bank Verification Number (BVN) checks, Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols and GPS farm mapping to ensure loans and farm inputs reach genuine farmers.

The Bank said the system is designed to eliminate fraudulent beneficiaries and prevent the diversion of intervention funds through middlemen.

National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Muhammad Magaji, welcomed the reforms, describing strict verification as essential to ensuring that subsidised loans reach genuine smallholder farmers rather than “political farmers.”

While urging faster loan disbursement to align with planting seasons, Magaji said AFAN would continue working with the Bank to strengthen the intervention framework.

The BOA also announced plans to accelerate its digital transformation by deploying digital farmer platforms, agency banking services and solar-powered operations across its 110 branches to improve access to financial services in underserved rural communities.

According to the Bank, it will continue engaging commodity associations, cooperatives and other agricultural stakeholders through town hall meetings and working groups to identify genuine beneficiaries and strengthen the implementation of the National Agri-food System Investment Plan (NASIP).