200 rice brands produced by 4.1m farmers in CBN scheme
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
More than 4.1 million small holder farmers have benefited from the Anchor Borrower Progrmame (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) since inception in 2015 and over 200 brands of rice are now produced locally.
CBN Assistant Director, Head Development Finance Office Kaduna branch, Aminu Muhammad, made the disclosure at an enlightenment session with Organised Labour and Civil Society.
The session held in Kaduna educated North West stakeholders on the various intervention schemes initiated under CBN Godwin Emefeile for them to see how they can benefit.
Muhammad said 706,719 beneficiaries nationwide have been counted in the N50 billion CBN Targeted Credit Facility (TCF), with 17,000 of them in Kaduna State comprising 638,70 households.
A total 37,571 businesses have benefited from the agriculture segment of the intervention programmes and 107,932 jobs were created, he added, urging the session attendees not to be left out.
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CBN interventions
The Nation reports that CBN Cooperate Communication Director Nwanisobi Osita reiterated in a virtual linkup that Emefeile has a five-year policy thrust to build the economy in a sustainable and inclusive manner viable for everyone.
“CBN is working. We see what has happened to the Nigerian economy, but because it is a mono-product depending solely on oil for its foreign exchange, it is susceptible to shock,” he said.
“Anytime there is external shock, it transmitted to our economy immediately, and that is why we had recessions in 2015 – and in 2020 as a result of COVID-19 pandemic recording negative 6.10 in Q2 of 2020 minus 3.62 in Q3.
“We were able to move to a positive trajectory but it was fragile. The economy today is booming in Q3 in 2021 by 3.04 per cent.
“All these interventions programmes are geared towards stimulating Nigeria’s economy and that is what CBN in concrete terms is doing to get our economy to grow in a sustainable manner.”
Issa Aremu, Director General of Michael Imoudu National Institute for National Studies (MINILS), Ilorin, commended the federal government for “a return to National Development Plan after decades of ad hoc neo-liberal sectoral reforms” adding that “nations that failed to plan only muddle through to fail.”
According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari devised the new plan that would outlive his administration and has shown that “statesmanship is about nation building not the next election as some state actors tend to poison the polity.”
Aremu urged Labour to “constructively support and engage the plan which enjoyed the inputs of Labour at preparation through its participatory inclusive process.”
He also applauded the CBN for using monetary policies to set the tone for the framework for the new National Development Plan in terms of stable macro-economic factors, value addition, and employment creation.
He urged trade unions to engage the CBN and take advantage of all its interventions to enhance the welfare of their members.