The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday released 50,000 metric tons of maize into the Nigerian market in a bid to push down the price of the commodity nationwide.
Last month, the apex Bank also fulfilled its pledge to reduce the price of the commodity by releasing maize from the strategic reserve through the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) to major poultry feed producers and poultry producers in the country.
A review of the impact of the release of the 50,000 metric tons of Maize in the second week of February, showed that maize market has recorded a significant reduction in price from N200,000 per metric ton to about N180,000.00 per metric ton. It is still anticipated that the current intervention would reduce the price further.
Major beneficiaries of the February release included Premier Flour Mills, Crown – Olam, Grand Cereals, Animal Care, Amobyn and Hybrid Feeds. Others include Zartech, Wacot, Sayeed Farms, Pandagri Novum and Premium Farms as well as the South West, South-South, North West and North Central chapters of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN).
The benefiting companies represent the major players in the poultry value chain in the country.
The release of the 50,000 metric ton of maize forestall the pressure and reduce the activities of intermediaries (middlemen) in the Nigerian Maize market.
In January this year, the CBN announced the release of 300,000 metric tons of maize into the Nigerian Maize Market to bridge the shortfall in production and augment local production of the commodity.
The current shortfall in the quantity of maize available in the market, that CBN is working on mitigating, is attributed to the activities of bandits, drought in some parts of the country last year, activities of hoarders and middlemen as well as insecurity around the major maize producing belt of Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and part of Kano states.
As part of the Bank’s financing framework, the CBN facilitates the funding of maize farmers and processors through the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) Commodity Association, Private/Prime Anchors, State Governments, Maize Aggregation Scheme (MAS), and the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS).
