The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Monday that loan recovery under its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) stood at N503 billion, representing 52.39 percent as at end February, 2023.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of CBN, Dr. AbdulMumin Isa, who disclosed this, stated that the apex bank remained committed to its developmental mandate of stimulating access to finance for the real sector of the economy.
Dr. Isa said the apex bank had released the sum of N1.079 trillion, as at February 28, 2023, out of which, N960 billion was due for repayment and a total of N503 billion has been repaid.
He added that the CBN ABP had supported about 4.57 million smallholder farmers at the end of February, 2023, who cultivated over 6.02 million hectares of 21 commodities across the country.
Isa listed the commodities as rice, wheat, cowpea, millet, maize, cotton, fish, soya bean, poultry, cassava, groundnut, ginger, sorghum, oil palm, cocoa, sesame, tomato, castor seed, yellow pepper, onions, and cattle/dairy.
He cited statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA) and noted that the ABP had contributed significantly to the increased national output of focal commodities, with maize and rice peaking at 12.2 and 9.0 million metric tonnes in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
According to him, the programme had also helped to improve the national average yield per hectare of these commodities, with productivity per hectare almost doubling within the eight years of the Programme’s implementation.
While further noting that repayments under the ABP were made through cash or produce by the beneficiaries, the Acting Spokesperson of the CBN stressed that the outstanding due balance on loans was still under moratorium due to the COVID-19 forbearance granted to beneficiaries of the Bank’s interventions in March 2020 and extended to February 28, 2022.
He said- “It is pertinent to note that the tenor of loans under the ABP is based on the commodity gestation period. For instance, loans granted to farmers cultivating some perennial crops could have up to a seven-year tenor,” he explained.
Isa said further that- “Accordingly, the Central Bank of Nigeria continues to welcome applications from eligible Nigerian farmers and firms under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.”