Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has disclosed that N554.61 billion has so far been disbursed to the beneficiaries of its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, ABP.
This CBN Director for Development Finance, Mr Yila Yusuf, who made the disclosure on Friday in Abuja, further stated that 3.8 million farmers have so far benefited from its programme since inception in 2015.
While commending President Muhammadu Buhari for taking the initiative to start the programme, Yusuf said the programme had done a lot to help farmers improve their yields and generate employment.
“We have to commend President Buhari for putting the ABP in place. Over 3.8 million farmers have so far benefited from the programme. The multiplier effect on the economy is huge,” Yusuf said.
“The ABP has helped farmers improve their yields. For maize, we now do five metric tonnes per hectare and for rice, we’re improving from four metric tonnes to 10 metric tonnes per hectare.
“We will be trying out some Brazilian seeds that we will give to the anchors and their association,” he said.
The Director thus stated that the CBN was making efforts to keep prices stable to ensure food security, adding that the programme had contributed to food sufficiency during the global lockdown occasioned by COVID-19.
He added that the apex bank no longer took cash from them as repayment for their loans as methods adopted to promote more farmers into ABP.
“Apart from jobs that have been created, there is also productivity, which is important to CBN. We also look at how we can keep prices stable because food security is very important. A lot of countries went into protectionist mood due to COVID-19, if we did not have this programme we would be in serious trouble.
“We rate every single commodity they produce and guarantee the prices. This will encourage more farmers to enrol in the programme,” he said.
