The Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) has disbursed over N300 billion to firms and farmers in the southern part of the nation as part of its interventions in the agricultural sector.
This was disclosed by the Governor of the apex bank while unveiling the ‘2020 wet season harvest aggregation’ as well as the inauguration of the ‘2021 wet season input distribution’ in the South-West geo-political zone, under the CBN-RIFAN’s Anchor Borrowers’ programme.
He said some of the States covered are Lagos, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River States among others.
Responding to an allegation that the Bank’s interventions are targeted at a certain section of the country, Emefiele explained that on the contrary, companies and farmers in the States were major beneficiaries of the bank’s interventions.
According to him, contrary to views held by some individuals and interest groups, the bank’s interventions in the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme were not only about rice production but had expanded to over 21 crops and were evenly spread across the country.
Emefiele urged stakeholders in the various crop value chains to continually make consistent and positive strides towards attaining food security, saying attaining self-sufficiency in food production would not come cheap.
He said the CBN stood ready to offer an effective partnership to deliver on this critical national mandate of attaining self-sufficiency in food production.
