Anchor Borrower Farmers Repay N8.357bn Loans, Says CBN

• Project Yields 4m metric tons Of Rice

Contrary to age-old belief about farmer being unwilling to repay loans they obtain from banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says those who accessed funds under its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) have remained faithful to the terms of the facilities they obtained and have started repaying.
The apex bank announced that the farmers have so far repaid a total of N8.357bn out of the N33.34bn disbursed through 12 Participating Finance Institutions to 146,557 farmers across 21 States of the federation for cultivating over 180,018 hectres of land as at March 31, 2017.
A breakdown of the amount showed that N15.137bn of the N33.34bn released to 73,941 farmers in Kebbi State have fallen due for repayment, out of which N7.119bn or 47% have been repaid and returned to CBN.
The balance N18.203bn of the 12-month tenured loans released to farmers in the other 20 states for two cropping (wet and dry) seasons, according to the CBN, have not fallen due for repayment, stressing that farmers in other benefiting states have also commenced the repayment to the tune of N1.238bn which is already with the CBN.
“Efforts are currently being made by the participating state governments to ensure that all outstanding loans are repaid by the farmers as soon as they are due before commencement of the next dry season cultivation,” the apex bank noted, to enable the CBN extend similar gestures to farmers in other states which have indicated interest in the participating in the Anchor Borrowers Programme.
Farmers under the programme cultivated six commodities namely: rice, wheat, maize, soya beans, cotton and fish, achieving appreciable yields, with Kebbi state alone accounting for about two million metric tons of rice out of estimated four million metric tons so far realized under programme alone nationwide.

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