Godwin Emefiele
The Central Bank of Nigeria says it has formed strategic
partnerships with agricultural commodity associations in the country in
its effort to expand the implementation of the Anchor Borrowers’
Programme.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Mr.
Isaac Okorafor, said in a statement that the decision to enter into
strategic partnerships was to consolidate on the gains of the ABP and
reach more deserving small holder farmers nationwide.
He said the ABP had so far achieved success in terms of outreach
and coverage, making it one of the most successful CBN development
finance interventions to date.
According to him, about N45.5bn has been released through 13
participating financial institutions in respect of over 218,000 farmers
cultivating nine commodities across 30 states.
He said, “The CBN is forming these partnerships to further ramp
up domestic production of identified commodities by leveraging the
existing organised structures of the agricultural associations
nationwide, thereby providing huge economics of scale in the
implementation of the programme.”
Okorafor said the strategic partnership had begun to yield results
with the commencement of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria Anchor
Borrowers’ Programme with the Bank of Agriculture, where about 300,000
rice farmers across 20 States would be supported during the upcoming dry
season cultivation.
He said an additional two million metric tonnes of paddy rice was expected to be produced under the RIFAN ABP.
He added that the partnership with RIFAN was in tandem with the
Federal Government’s agenda for Nigeria to be self-sufficient in rice
production in the future.
Okorafor further said that all registered agricultural commodity
associations could key into this strategic partnership by simply
approaching any of the participating financial institutions
collaborating with the CBN in the implementation of the programme.
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