The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that its loans to farmers have now crossed the N1 trillion mark amid rising loan defaults.
Recently a CBN official in Oyo State had raised the alarm on how many farmers now see the loans disbursed under the Anchor Borrowers Programme as their cut of the national cake.
Data from CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee communique reveals that the ABP loan rose to N1.01 trillion as at the end of April.
The communique reads: “Between April and May 2022, the Bank released the sum of N57.91bn under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme to 185,972 new projects for the cultivation of rice, wheat, and maize, bringing the cumulative disbursement under the programme to N1.01tn, disbursed to over 4.2 million smallholder farmers cultivating 21 commodities across the country.”
CBN had earlier said that for January and February 2022, a total of N29.67bn for the procurement of inputs and cultivation of maize, rice, and wheat, three crops were disbursed.
“These disbursements bring the total under the programme to over 4.52 million smallholder farmers, cultivating 21 commodities across the country, comes to a total of N975.61bn,” the communique said.
Source: Ripples Nigeria.
