CBN urges farmers to access various agricultural intervention programmes

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has challenged Nigerian farmers to explore the various agricultural interventions of the apex bank aimed at enhancing value addition to their output and towards attaining food self-sufficiency.

Also, the CBN said the facilities would assist farmers in the provision of raw materials to the manufacturing industries and for export, which ultimately helps in diversifying and improving the foreign exchange earnings base of Nigeria’s economy.

The challenge was thrown by Ogbu Onyeka Michael, the Branch Controller, the Central Bank of Nigeria, Abuja Branch in his goodwill message delivered on Thursday at the National Award ceremony for the 2021 Best Farmer of the year under the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF).

He said the Best Farmer Award ceremony is obviously more than a mere ritual of recognition for the best farmers but an expression of the CBN Management’s commitment to supporting hard work, innovation, and productivity in the Agricultural value chain.

To this end, he stated that “the CBN challenges Nigerian farmers to explore our various agricultural interventions aimed at enhancing value addition to their output towards attaining food self-sufficiency, provision of raw materials to our manufacturing industries and also for export, which ultimately assists in diversifying and improving the foreign exchange earnings base of our economy.”

The CBN Branch Controller congratulated the winners of this year’s awards across the states and at the national level but most Importantly, all Nigerian farmers, the Participating Financial Institutions, Development Finance Department, CBN and other stakeholders for their hard work and resilience in supporting the activities of the ACGSF.

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According to him, the event celebrates and honours farmers from all over the country who have demonstrated honesty and professionalism in channelling the loans availed by the Participating Financial Institutions, to various Agricultural activities through their active participation in the CBN’s ACGSF.

The ACGSF was established by the CBN in collaboration with the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1977 to amongst other things, de-risk agricultural loans by providing guarantees to banks that lend to the agricultural sector, encourage lending to the agricultural sector.

It also serves to boost its contribution to output, incentivize good credit behaviour by obligors who repay as and when due (through initiatives like Interest Drawback Programme (IDP), encourage group dynamics amongst farmers for enhanced bankability and knowledge sharing via the Self Help Linkage Group initiatives amongst others.

The ACGSF is not only an important programme of the CBN, but the first Development Finance Intervention scheme to be established by the Bank, in fact, the scheme heralded the birth of the Development Finance Department (DFD) of the Bank.

“It is evident that the successes achieved under the ACGSF has led to significant improvement in Deposit Money Banks’ (DMB) lending to the agricultural sector and has led to remarkable growth in agri-business value chain in Nigeria”, the Abuja CBN Branch Controller said.

The annual Best Farmer Award Ceremony, therefore, provides an opportunity to recognise the tremendous strides made by participating farmers under the ACGSF, add visibility to the programme among prospective participants and ultimately signal the CBN’s resolve at ensuring the achievement of food self-sufficiency in Nigeria.

“The negative impact that COVID-19 pandemic and recently, the Russian-Ukraine war has rendered on the global supply chain, has further underscored the importance the CBN places on Agriculture and other real sector interventions aimed at insulating the economy from such external shocks.

“It only leaves us to wonder and imagine what the consequences would have been on the country without the CBN initiatives. Therefore, the Board and the Management of the CBN should be commended, especially our indefatigable Governor, Dr Godwin Emefiele (CON) for this laudable achievement,” Mr Michael further said.

The CBN Management reaffirmed its commitment to supporting farmers to grow exponentially so that Nigeria can actually grow what it eats.

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