Mukhtar advocates access to finance for livestock farmers
By Kunle Sanni –
The Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Mukhtar Maiha, has called for deeper stakeholder collaboration to improve access to finance for youth and women engaged in livestock agribusiness across Nigeria.
Maiha made the remarks while delivering a goodwill message at a high-level policy dialogue convened by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Abuja on Monday, 4 August 2025, under the theme: “Access to Finance and Empowering Youth and Women for Agribusiness Success.”
Addressing a cross-section of policymakers, development partners, financiers, and agripreneurs, the Minister emphasised the importance of financial inclusion, asset support, and market linkages for rural livestock farmers.
“According to the Enhancing Financial Inclusion and Access (EFInA) Access to Finance (A2F) Survey, formal financial inclusion in Nigeria increased from 56 percent in 2020 to 64 percent in 2023.
“However, 26 percent of Nigerians are still financially excluded, which means 28.8 million adults are not part of the financial system. Financial exclusion is pervasive in rural areas due to illiteracy, low penetration by banks and fintechs, socio-cultural attitudes, and poor infrastructure,” he noted.
Maiha disclosed that the Ministry of Livestock Development is scaling up interventions to empower 37,000 young men and women with practical training, starter assets, and sustainable access to markets.
“We have developed and are implementing the Nigeria Livestock Growth Acceleration Strategy (NL-GAS) with a goal of revolutionising the sector and increasing its value from $33 billion to $74 billion within the next five years.
“The ten-pillar NL-GAS has two key pillars directly related to today’s discussion — Finance & Insurance, and Women & Youth Initiative. We are collaborating with different actors to ensure that our farmers and other stakeholders are financially included in all sectors, such as dairy, small ruminants, poultry, and rural trade,” the Minister stated.
