The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, disclosed on Tuesday that over N300 billion had been disbursed to companies operating in Southern part of Nigeria as interventions in the agricultural sector.
The CBN Boss, disclosed this while rebuffing allegation that the bank’s targeted intervention funds in the agricultural sector were given in favour of a certain section of the country.
Emefiele clarified that organizations and farmers across Osun, Edo, Ondo, Ogun, Lagos, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River were major beneficiaries of the CBN’s interventions.
He said this in Ekiti State, while unveiling the 2020 wet season harvest aggregation and inauguration of the 2021 wet season input distribution in the South West geopolitical zone under the CBN-RIFAN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.
He explained that, contrary to views by some individuals, the CBN interventions in the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme were not only about rice production but had expanded to over 21 crops and were evenly spread across the country.
He described criticisms against the CBN effort at boosting agriculture in Nigeria as unfair.
Emefiele urged stakeholders in the various crop value chains to continually make consistent and positive strides towards attaining food security, saying attaining self-sufficiency in food production would not come cheap.
While acknowledging the current challenges in attaining food security in the country, he said synergy among stakeholders would surely catalyse the growth process.
According to him, the sustainability of Nigeria’s current efforts in agricultural production can only be guaranteed if youths are attracted into agriculture as they remain the future of the country.
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