Data from the CBN Economic Report have shown that farmers who subscribed to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) owed the apex bank N463bn as of the end of March 2021.
Reports show that the ABP was launched on November 17, 2015, by President, Muhammadu Buhari to reverse the country’s negative balance of payments, especially in the area of food.
Beneficiaries of the programme include farmers cultivating cereals (rice, maize, wheat, etc.), cotton, roots and tubers, sugarcane, tree crops, legumes, tomato and livestock.
According to the CBN’s guidelines for the ABP, the broad objective of the programme is to create economic linkage between smallholder farmers and reputable large-scale processors with a view to increasing agricultural output and significantly improving the capacity utilisation of agricultural firms.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this in Jos, the Plateau State Capital, at an event to begin the Nigeria Brown Revolution programme aimed at boosting wheat production in the country.
