The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has revealed that the agricultural sector continues to struggle despite the massive intervention in the sector.
According to NBS latest GDP report, the agriculture sector grew by only 1.3% in real terms, during the third quarter of 2022.
Although this is an increase of 0.12% points from the corresponding period of 2021, and an increase of 0.14% points from the second quarter, the expectations for the sector remains a far cry from expectation.
The agricultural activities measured by the NBS include crop production, livestock, forestry, and fishing.
In terms of contribution to the growth of Nigerian economy in the third quarter, the NBS said the sector contributed 29.67% to overall GDP in real terms in Q3 2022. This is lower than the contribution in the third quarter of 2021 which stood at 29.94 percent.
Meanwhile, the CBN, in its last monetary policy committee meeting for November, revealed that between September and October 2022, under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), it disbursed N41.02 billion to several agricultural projects, bringing the cumulative disbursement under the Programme to N1.06trn.
The apex bank also said that over 4.6 million small-holder farmers, cultivating 21 commodities across the country, have benefited from the interventions.
Another N0.30 billion was disbursed to finance large-scale agricultural projects under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme, CACS.
“Consequently, the total disbursements for agro-production and agro-processing under the Scheme stands at N745.31 billion, for 680 projects”, CBN stated.
