According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it has disbursed N12.65 billion to farmers through its anchor borrower program (ABP) in the first two months of 2023.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja while reading the communiqué issued at the end of the apex bank’s monetary policy committee’s 290th meeting (MPC).
He stated that the ABP has disbursed a total of N1.09 trillion since its inception in 2015.
According to him, the program has benefited 4.6 million smallholder farmers cultivating or raising 21 agricultural commodities so far.
President Muhammadu Buhari launched the ABP on November 17, 2015, to establish a link between anchor companies involved in processing and smallholder farmers (SHFs) of Nigeria.
It was intended to provide farm inputs (in kind and cash) to SHFs in order to boost key commodity production, stabilize input supply to agro-processors, and address Nigeria’s bad food balance of payments.
“Between January and February 2023, the bank disbursed N12.65 billion to three agricultural projects under the ABP,” Emefiele said.
“It brings the cumulative disbursement under the program to N1.09 trillion to more than 4.6 million smallholder farmers cultivating or rearing 21 agricultural commodities on an approved 6.02 million hectares of farmland.”
Emefiele stated that the apex bank also released N3.01 billion under the Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilization Facility (NEMSF-2) for capital and operational expenditures of electricity distribution companies (DisCos).
He stated that the facility was designed to help DisCos improve its liquidity and recover the legacy debt.
“This brings the total disbursement under the facility to N254.39 billion,” he added.
Emefiele said the CBN also released the sum of N23.70 billion under the N1 trillion real sector facility to eight new real sector projects in agriculture, manufacturing, and services.
“Cumulative disbursements under the real sector facility currently stands at N2.43 trillion disbursed to 462 projects across the country, comprising 257 manufacturing, 95 agriculture, 97 services, and 13 mining sector projects,” he said.
