The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it has recovered a total ₦503 billion from farmers under the Anchor Borrower Programme (ABP).
A spokesman for the CBN, Dr. AbdulMumin Isa, announced this feat on Monday.
According to him, ₦503 billion recovered represents 52.39% of total exposure.
Isa stated that the balance of ₦119 billion was not due for repayment.
He said the CBN remained committed to its developmental mandate of stimulating access to finance for the real sector.
Providing further update on the ABP, Isa said the bank had released the sum of ₦1.08 trillion, as of February 28, 2023, of which ₦960 billion was due for repayment.
According to him, the CBN ABP had supported about 4.57 million smallholder farmers who cultivated over 6.02 million hectares of 21 commodities across the country as of February 2023.
He listed the commodities to include rice, wheat, cowpea, millet, maize, cotton, fish, soya bean, poultry, and cassava.
Others are groundnut, ginger, sorghum, oil palm, cocoa, sesame, tomato, castor seed, yellow pepper, onions, and cattle/dairy.
Further citing data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA), the CBN acting director noted that the ABP had contributed significantly to increased national output of local commodities.
Double Yield
leading this contribution are maize and rice, peaking at 12.2 million metric tonnes and 9.0 million metric tonnes in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
He said the programme had also helped to improve the national average yield per hectare of these commodities.
Also, the productivity per hectare almost doubled within the eight years of the implementation of the Anchor Borrower Programme.
Furthermore, Isa noted that repayments under the ABP were made through cash or produce by the beneficiaries.
“The outstanding due balance on loans is still under moratorium due to the COVID-19 forbearance granted to beneficiaries through our interventions in March 2020 and extended to February 28, 2022.
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“It is pertinent to note that the tenor of loans under the ABP is based on the commodity gestation period. For instance, loans granted to farmers cultivating some perennial crops could have up to seven-year tenor.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria remains committed to its developmental mandate of stimulating access to finance for the real sector, particularly agriculture, as it continues to support the Federal Government’s drive for food security and economic growth.
“Accordingly, the Central Bank of Nigeria continues to welcome applications from eligible Nigerian farmers and firms under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme,” Isa said.
He added that the central bank’s core objective of catalysing the productive base of the economy had continued to support investments in capital assets in sectors with high-growth and employment-elastic potential through its various interventions.
