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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