FG's ₦50B Agric Fund: Who Qualifies, How to Apply, and What to Expect

The ₦50 billion Agric Fund is open. Eligibility is narrower than the headlines suggest, and the disbursement window is short. Here is what to know before you spend a week on the paperwork.

Who qualifies

Registered cooperatives and CAC-registered agribusinesses with at least 12 months of operating history. Subsistence-only operations are not the target.

What you need

CAC documents, BVN, two seasons of farm records, a bankable proposal, and an offtake letter. The offtake letter is the most common point of rejection.

Disbursement realities

Approved applicants typically wait 8–14 weeks for the first tranche. Plan accordingly.

How the fund is structured

The ₦50B is split across three windows: input financing (up to ₦5M per cooperative), equipment financing (up to ₦25M per agribusiness), and value-chain financing (up to ₦150M for processors with documented offtake). Interest is single-digit, tenor is 12–36 months, and there is a six-month moratorium on principal for crop-cycle borrowers.

The paperwork, in order

1. CAC certificate and status report (not older than three months).
2. BVN of all signatories.
3. Tax clearance for the last two years where applicable.
4. Two seasons of farm records — yield, input cost, sales.
5. A written proposal: what you will do with the money, when, and how you will repay.
6. A signed offtake letter from a verifiable buyer.
7. Bank statements for the last 12 months.

Applications without item 6 are rejected at screening. Applications without item 4 are deferred indefinitely.

Common rejection reasons

• Offtake letter from a buyer that cannot be reached by phone.
• Proposed activity outside the priority commodity list (current priorities: rice, maize, wheat, cassava, poultry, dairy, aquaculture, oil palm).
• Mismatch between requested amount and demonstrated operating scale.
• Co-mingled personal and business bank accounts.

What approved farmers actually do with the money

The pattern, from cooperatives we have spoken to in Kebbi, Niger and Cross River: 50–60% on inputs (seed, fertiliser, agro-chemicals), 20–30% on mechanisation hire, 10–20% on storage and post-harvest handling. The cooperatives that ring-fence storage spending tend to repay on time. The ones that spend it all on inputs and gamble on price often do not.

A realistic timeline

• Week 0: Application submitted.
• Weeks 2–4: Desk review at the participating commercial bank.
• Weeks 4–8: Field verification.
• Weeks 8–12: Credit committee.
• Weeks 12–16: First disbursement.

If you have not heard anything by week 6, escalate in writing to the participating bank's agribusiness desk. Silence is rarely good news.

The bottom line

The fund is real and the money is moving, but it rewards prepared applicants and punishes hopeful ones. Spend the week on the offtake letter and the farm records before you spend it on the proposal itself.