Business: CBN supports rice farmers with N4.9bn loan

CBN supports rice farmers with N4.9bn loan. The Central Bank of Nigeria said on Sunday that a sum of N4.9bn has been given as advances to rice farmers under its anchor borrower program. 

The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, expressed this while talking amid a voyage through the farmlands in Kebbi state developed under the intervention system of the apex bank.

The anchor borrower system is intended to make economic linkages amongst farmers and processors, not just to guarantee expanded agricultural yield of rice and wheat, additionally shut the crevice amongst production and consumption.

Under the project, the CBN has put aside N40bn out of the N220bn Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund to be given to agriculturists at single digit financing cost of nine per cent for each annum.

Under the plan, smallholder farmers are qualified for credits extending from N150,000 to N250,000 to help them in getting essential agricultural inputs like seedlings, composts, pesticides, among others, to support rural yields and efficiency.

Emefiele said through the mediation, an aggregate of 78,581 farmers were assembled in Kebbi State under the intitiaive, with a sum of 570,000 direct occupations made all the while.

The farmers, according to him would be delivering around one million metric huge amounts of rice for the nation this year.

The governor as indicated by proclamation issued by the apex bank on Sunday depicted the present lack of remote trade facing the nation as a surprisingly positive turn of events as neighborhood creation of different key items are currently being given top need.

The statement reads in part, “The Governor stated that the success recorded by the rice farmers in Kebbi state has rekindled hope in the ability of Nigeria to be self sufficient in rice and wheat production.

“He noted that with the sum of N210,000 granted to each farmer, they are able to cultivate a hectre of rice.

“He disclosed that a total of 78,581 farmers were mobilized in Kebbi state under the Anchor Borrowers Programme. The farmers are already looking forward to a total of one million metric tons rice this year.

“The CBN Governor stated that with the disbursement of N4.9bn as loans to the farmers, over N570,000 direct jobs have been created and saved.”

Aside from the quantity of occupations made, Emefiele expressed that 70,871 provincial farmers now own and operate bank accounts and are likewise caught under the Bank Verification Number biometric venture.

The Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh as per the announcement said that with Kebbi State alone focusing on one million tons of rice out of the anticipated seven million tons required by the whole nation, the nation was en route to independence in rice creation.

He complimented the endeavors of the CBN for its intervention in the agricultural division including that consider endeavors are being placed set up at opening up other provincial areas for agricultural purposes.