The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has disbursed the sum of N57.91 billion for the execution of 185,972 projects under the anchor borrowers’ programme (ABP).
Godwin Emefiele, governor of CBN, disclosed this on Tuesday at a news conference in Abuja.
In the monetary policy committee communique released on Tuesday, Emefiele said the funds, disbursed over a period of two months, were for projects meant for the cultivation of rice, wheat, and maize.
In November 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari launched the ABP initiative to boost agricultural production, improve foreign exchange and reverse Nigeria’s negative balance of trade on food.The initiative captured smallholder farmers cultivating cereals (rice, maize, wheat etc.) cotton, roots and tubers, sugarcane, tree crops, legumes, tomato, and livestock.
Emefiele said at least four million smallholder farmers across Nigeria have been supported to boost the production of agricultural commodities in the country.
“Between April and May 2022, the bank released the sum of N57.91 billion under the anchor borrowers’ programme (ABP) to 185,972 new projects for the cultivation of rice, wheat, and maize, bringing the cumulative disbursement under the programme to N1.01 trillion, disbursed to over 4.2 million smallholder farmers cultivating 21 commodities across the country.”