The move was part of efforts to support and boost the real sector and unlock food and wealth creating potentials in the nation’s agriculture sector.
TAAL, also known as Triton Farm, accessed the CACS through the support of Heritage Bank to set up aquaculture businesses- nursery/hatchery for the production of fingerlings and brood stock in Ikeja; and earthen ponds for catfish and tilapia in Asejire, Iwo and Gambari towns in Oyo State.
The company said its strategy is to embrace backward integration through production of fish locally and reduce its importation of frozen fish, as well as assist small scale farms by producing quality breed fingerlings.
The Chairman, Triton Group, Ashvin Samtani, said the farm was fully integrated in aquaculture, poultry and crop production and is a platform to create employment for teeming youth.
Heritage Bank group head of agriculture finance, Olugbenga Awe, stated that the partnership between the bank and Triton Farm local production will conserve scarce foreign exchange and enhance food security.
Awe stressed that Heritage Bank’s support for small-scale enterprises is well known and most of these SMEs play in the agriculture sector.
According to him, the bank sees agriculture as one of its heritage that can empower individuals and communities in terms of creating wealth from the soil and through the entire value –chain using value addition and industrialisation.
“We are also focused on small holder farmers as we currently support thousands of farmers in Kaduna and Zamfara states in rice and soybeans production under the Anchor Borrowers Programme, he added."
The Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, during a tour of Triton Farms, commended the company, stating that the CBN and Heritage Banks’ financial support to the company’s achievement is very fundamental as investment in food security is probably the most profitable venture anyone could think of.
