As some Nigerian farmers gets set for the new planting season, a total of N948 billion has been disbursed to farmers as loans through the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in-conjunction with the commercial banks, as at last week of February, 2022.
This figure was disclosed by Professor Ken Ife, while addressing members of Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN), at the second edition of its 2022 monthly capacity building program.
Professor Ife, who is the Development Consultant & Lead Consultant, Industry & Private Sector Development, Ecowas Commission, in the virtual presentation, spoke on the theme: “Economic Recovery and CBN’s RT200 FX Programme: Role of Banks and Export Promoting Institutions”
He explained that during the period under consideration, 4,478,381 farmers benefited from the Anchor borrowers programme loans, with 5.2 million hectares of lands, which has resulted to 12.5 million direct and indirect jobs.
Professor Ife, pointed out that more people could have died from starvation and hunger in Nigeria than covid-19 and the victims of the insecurity put together if decisive action was not taken to tackle food security through CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme.
Adding that the unemployment challenge and the demographic time-bomb should leave us in no doubt of the consequences of under 35 year young people, which 65% of our population, having unemployment rate of 48% and underemployment rate of 22%, and with only 7% of graduates finding employment.
Commenting on Nigeria Gross Domestic Products, (GDP) figures that was released by the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS) on Thursday February 17, 2022, which recorded 3.98% growth for the fourth quarter of 2021, he said, this was possible because of quantitative monetary and fiscal policy responses, including a higher order of targeting of CBN’s domestic finance intervention at the real sector of the economy.
ABP is an agricultural loan scheme launched in 2015 by the federal government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It was designed to boost agricultural yields, halt large volumes of food importation and address negative trade balance.
