BAT Nigeria provides farmer support

The more than 800 members of the Nigeria Independent Tobacco Association in the Oke Ogun area of Oyo State are to benefit from NGN282 million in interest-free loans from British American Tobacco Iseyin Agronomy (BATIA), a subsidiary of British American Tobacco Nigeria, according to a Business Day story.

The loans, which are to be distributed as this year’s planting season gets underway, are  in addition to the provision by BATIA of seedlings, herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers and technical support.

Thomas Omotoye, head of leaf at BATIA, said his company would provide also environment management and give farmers seedlings so they could plant food crops after harvesting their tobacco.

The company is targeting the recovery of 96 percent of the loans it makes to farmers this year.