The Central Bank of Nigeria, in Communiqué No. 140 of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th January 2022, disclosed that it has disbursed under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), N927.94 billion to over 4.5 million smallholder farmers, who are cultivating 21 commodities across Nigeria.
The Bank’s intervention programs focused on boosting productivity in manufacturing/industries, agriculture, energy/infrastructure, healthcare, and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) were evaluated by the Committee.
The Central Bank of Nigeria highlighted the amount of intervention for the tail end of the year 2021, and the cumulative disbursements to beneficiaries.
The CBN said, ”Between November and December 2021, under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), the Bank disbursed N75.99 billion to support the cultivation of over 383,000 hectares of maize, rice and wheat during the 2022 dry season, bringing the cumulative disbursements under the Programme to N927.94 billion to over 4.5 million smallholder farmers cultivating 21 commodities across the country.“
The central bank also stated that all excess output aggregated from the financed farmers will be released to the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) to help moderate the prices of food in the market.
About the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP)
In November 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari launched the ABP initiative to boost agricultural production, improve foreign exchange and reverse Nigeria’s negative balance of trade on food.
Smallholder farmers cultivating cereals (rice, maize, wheat etc.) cotton, roots and tubers, sugarcane, tree crops, legumes, tomato and livestock are those captured under this initiative.
Loans are disbursed to the beneficiary farmers through Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and Microfinance Banks (MFBs), which the programme recognises as Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs).
Tell us in the comments, some of the CBN programmes that you have benefitted from.
