According to information in CBN s official Twitter handle, Emefiele made the statement while unveiling rice pyramids in Ekiti State, the first in the South West under the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the apex bank had earlier unveiled similar rice pyramids cultivated under the ABP in Kebbi and Gombe states. Emefiele said that the one million hectares of rice would be cultivated through combination of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) farmers and private anchors for each planting season in 2021. He added that the CBN was already financing about 3.1 farmers for the cultivation of 3.8 million hectares across 21 commodities through 23 Participating Financial Institutions across the country.
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Nigeriaâs Unity Bank Plc has said it will provide additional funding to no fewer than 120,000 smallholder maize farmers in Nigeria in the 2021 wet season farming in Nigeria.
Tomi Somefun, managing director/Chief Executive Officer, disclosed this while delivering a goodwill message at the unveiling of the first National Maize Pyramids and flag-off of wet season farming programmes held over the weekend in Katsina.
As a major stakeholder in the roll out of the CBNâs Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), Unity Bank Plc was invited to participate in the events marking the unveiling by the Maize Association of Nigeria, MAAN.
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Six years after the Federal Government launched the Anchor Borrowers Programme through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to assist in food production, the report card from the Southwest has revealed that some state governments expected to guarantee loans were reluctant to do so because they feared they would have to bear the burden should farmers default.
It was gathered that conditions attached to securing the loan did not favour Southwest vegetation, as the drafters of the conditions allegedly had northern farmers in mind. Stakeholders claimed inputs were released to farmers in Southwest at a time suitable for only northern farmers. They cited, for instance, that inputs were released late in the year, when northern farmers were
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• Expand operations in southern states, farmers urge CBN
Farmers and their association have called on the Federal Government to use the Central Bank of Nigeria-managed Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) to deepen food production in the southern states amid insecurity in the north. x
They made the call while commending various interventions of the CBN across the country, especially in rice, maize, cocoa, oil palm, poultry, and cassava production.
As of January 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) claimed it had disbursed N554.61 billion to 2,849,490 farmers to boost food security under its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) beginning from 2015.
Mr Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor, had earlier explained that out of the amount, N61.02 billion was disbursed to 353,370 dry season farmers.