First City Monument Bank (FCMB) has unveiled plans to deepen its agritech strategy by deploying AI-powered advisory services in major Nigerian languages, as part of efforts to improve access to finance and support for smallholder farmers.

According to the Bank’s Agritech Alumni Impact Report covering 2018 to 2026, the Bank will continue to support the growth and scale-up of innovative AgTech companies developing solutions across the agricultural value chain, including AI-powered platforms that provide farmers with real-time advisory and support in local languages such as Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo.

The initiative comes amid growing concerns over food security, agricultural productivity and the continued exclusion of farmers from formal financial systems across Africa.

FCMB noted that although agriculture contributes about 24 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP, only six per cent of farmers in Africa currently have access to formal credit. The Bank said this long-standing financing gap continues to inform the development of broader, more inclusive lending models that leverage relevant AgTech solutions, including weather data, soil intelligence, and USSD-enabled technology platforms.

The report stated that the bank’s agritech programme has evolved from a startup-focused competition into a broader ecosystem connecting innovators, investors and development partners.

Planned next steps include climate-resilient agricultural financing, bundled insurance and animal healthcare solutions, and expanding Nigerian agritech startups into other African markets such as Uganda, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia and Kenya.

FCMB said the strategy reflects a shift from traditional lending toward building “a de-risked, data-driven, and sovereign future for food and agriculture in Africa.”

Over the years, FCMB’s AgTech initiatives have benefited from collaborations with development partners, including FMO and the United Nations Development Programme, while the Bank has also worked with the Mastercard Foundation on broader agricultural and youth-focused interventions.

Update news