Farmers pay back N10b in CBN intervention scheme
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Farmers have paid back about N10 billion to the Bank of Agriculture (BoA) in the past 18 months as the bank intensifies loan recovery through a task force committee and recovery agents.
The sum was recovered from participants in the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) created to raise agricultural production and ensure food sufficiency, so the country would stop importing food.
A source said the task force was set up in August 2020 by BoA Managing Director Kabir Adamu specifically to recover loans granted under the ABP but recovery agents still handle traditional loans advanced by the BoA.
An incentive was introduced by the BoA through concession on interest, which has helped customers repay.
The task force works with CBN officials and engages ABP beneficiaries with focus on repayment of loans.
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Rice goes up in price
A member of the task force told The Nation that more than N6 billion was recovered from ABP participants in the past one and a half years and another N3 billion from traditional loans granted by the BoA.
The emphasis is on producing staple foods, particularly rice which is part of the diet of nearly all Nigerians North and South.
The CBN announced in December 2021 that more than 4.1 million small holder farmers have benefited from the ABP since its inception in 2015 and over 200 brands of rice are now produced locally.
However, the rice pyramid Muhammadu Buhari celebrated in Abuja three weeks ago was roundly denounced as false by farmers who said the purported one million bags of rice were not produced in Nigeria but mostly imported.
The price of a 50kg bag of rice has since risen from N25,000 to N35,000 which is another evidence that there is no additional rice in the market as Buhari made the public to believe.