Loans repayment by farmers under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) stood at N503 billion as of February 28, 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of the bank, AbdulMumin Isa, who disclosed this in Abuja over the weekend said the figure represents 52.39 per cent of the total N1.079 trillion released to different beneficiaries.
Isa who spoke on the performance of the ABP initiative by the bank said the recovered amount was out of about N960 billion that was due for repayment by the various beneficiaries, while the balance of N119 billion was not due yet.
He said the apex bank remained committed to its developmental mandate of stimulating access to finance for the real sector through various intervention financing initiatives like the ABP to grow the economy.
The CBN ABP, he said, provided support to about 4.57 million smallholder farmers as at end of February 2023, to help them cultivate over 6.02 million hectares of 21 commodities across the country.
Some of the commodities that received support included rice, wheat, cowpea, millet, maize, cotton, fish, soya bean, poultry, cassava, groundnut, ginger, sorghum, oil palm, cocoa, sesame, tomato, castor seed, yellow pepper, onions, and cattle/dairy.
Citing statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA), Isa said the ABP contributed significantly to the increased national output of focal commodities, like maize and rice, whose production peaked at about 12.2 and 9.0 million metric tonnes in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The programme, he said, also helped to improve the national average yield per hectare of these commodities, with productivity per hectare almost doubling within the eight years of the programme’s implementation.
Repayments under the ABP, the Acting Spokesperson of the CBN noted, were made through cash or produce by the beneficiaries.
The outstanding balance on loans due, he explained, was still under moratorium due to the COVID-19 forbearance granted to beneficiaries of the Bank’s intervention funds in March 2020, which was later extended to February 28, 2022.
“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,” he explained.
Isa emphasized that the CBN’s interventions, with the core objective of catalyzing the economy’s productive base, have continued to support investments in capital assets in sectors with high-growth and employment-elastic potential.
“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,” he added.
