• Releases N45.5bn To Cultivate 9 Commodities In 30 States

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Wednesday announced strategic partnerships with agricultural commodity associations in the country in a bid to expand the implementation of its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).
The ABP is one of the most successful CBN development finance interventions to date, achieved success in terms of outreach and coverage, the bank said it has so far released about N45.5bn through 13 Participating Financial Institutions in respect of over 218,000 farmers cultivating nine commodities across 30 States.
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, November 8, 2017, CBN’s Acting Director in charge of Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor, said the strategic partnerships are part of consolidating on the gains of the ABP, by involving more deserving small holder farmers nationwide.
“The CBN is forming these partnerships to further ramp up domestic production of identified commodities by leveraging the existing organized structures of the agricultural associations nationwide, thereby providing huge economics of scale in the implementation of the programme,” he explained.
According to him, the strategic partnership is already yielding results with the commencement of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme in alliance with the Bank of Agriculture, where about 300,000 rice farmers across 20 States would be supported under the ABP during the upcoming dry season cultivation.
Continuing, the CBN Spokesman said an additional two million metric tonnes of paddy rice was expected to be produced under the dedicated RIFAN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme. He added that the strategic 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 (PFI) collaborating with the CBN in the implementation of the programme.
It will be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on November 17, 2015 in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State.