The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, says claims that interventions in the agricultural sector, favours a particular section of the country are inaccurate.
Emefiele spoke in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State while unveiling the 2020 wet season harvest aggregation and flag-off of the 2021 wet season input distribution in the South-West.
The CBN chief explained that interventions in the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) were not only about rice production but had expanded to over 21 crops and evenly spread across Nigeria.
Emefiele disclosed that more than N300 billion had been disbursed to companies operating in southern states, citing companies and farmers across Lagos, Edo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River as beneficiaries.
He charged stakeholders in the crop value chains in Nigeria to continually make consistent and positive strides towards attaining food security.
Emefiele expressed confidence that the synergy among stakeholders will catalyse the growth process, assuring that the CBN was prepared to offer an effective partnership to deliver on the mandate of self-sufficiency in food production.
He urged Nigerian youths to embrace agriculture, noting that they have the talent, energy, enthusiasm, technological adoption capacity and the right drive.
“We must meet them halfway by providing the enabling environment to make agriculture attractive to them. The CBN stands ready to support youths that are willing to engage in agriculture”, Emefiele assured.
To date, a total of 3,107,890 farmers have been financed for the cultivation of 3,801,397 hectares across 21 commodities through 23 Participating Financial Institutions in all States and Abuja.
Under the 2020 wet season CBN-RIFAN partnership, the CBN has financed 221,450 farmers for the cultivation of 221,450 hectares in 32 States.
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