According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) has disbursed N948 billion to 4, 478, 381 smallholder farmers across the country.
Mr Osita Nwanisobi, Director, CBN Corporate Communications Department, made the announcement on Friday in Enugu during the current Enugu International Trade Fair.
The ABP is an agricultural credit plan created by the Federal Government through the CBN in 2015, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The program’s principal goal is to increase agricultural yields, reduce large-scale food imports, and correct a negative trade balance.
Meanwhile, Nwanisobi stated that the scheme’s beneficiaries cultivated 5.2 million hectares of farmland across the country, resulting in the creation of nearly 12.5 million direct and indirect jobs.
The apex bank has disbursed N368.79 billion to 778, 000 beneficiaries under the CBN targeted Credit Facility meant to mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, according to the director.
According to him, the recipients included 648, 052 households and around 130, 000 small and medium businesses.
“Specifically, the bank disbursed N1.452 trillion to 337 large real sector projects in agriculture, manufacturing, services and mining under Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF),” he said.
According to Nwanisobi, the CBN did it through leading policy and finance assistance to roughly 40 programs through its developmental mandate as embodied in the CBN Act 2007 (as amended).
The measures, he said, were carried out through the bank’s development finance efforts.
The RSSF, the Agri-business/Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme, and the Non-oil Export Stimulation Facility are among the measures he mentioned.
Earlier, Mr Jasper Nduagwuike, President of the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA), praised the CBN for its varied intervention efforts.
Nduagwuike urged the CBN to step up its bank monitoring efforts.
“There must be a way the CBN will control the activities of fraudsters in the financial circle.
“Ponzi schemes seem to have a way of dodging the organisation until it has wrecked huge financial damage to individuals and the economy,” he said.
ECCIMA’s president expressed his pride in being associated with the bank.
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Source: Nyscinfo
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