By Chioma Iruke
Nigeria’s apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that it has disbursed the sum of N791 billion to more than 3 million farmers across the 36 states of the Federation, under its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).
This is part of the bank’s effort towards diversification of the economy and assisting farmers with the provision of farm inputs and cash.
This disclosure was made by CBN’s Director of Development Finance Department, Mr Yusuf Yila, on Friday in Abuja, during an interaction with the press.
Yila said the apex bank had reduced the interest rate on the loan from 9% to 5%, to encourage more farmers to have access to the credit.
He said the programme had helped participating farmers to improve their yields, especially maize from initial 2 metric tons per hectare, to 5 metric tons per hectare, while that of rice to 4 metric tons per hectare.
Yela said the bank was also investing in reducing post-harvest losses of farm produce by encouraging dry season farming, describing it as better in reducing such losses.
He said, “Agriculture works better in the dry season, because you cannot control water during the rainy season, but you can control it during the dry season by using irrigation. The bank is also building silos and irrigation dams to reduce losses.”
