The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it plans to fund the value chains of nine agricultural commodities to the tune of N432bn in the 2020 wet planting season.
The commodities are rice, cotton, oil palm, tomato, cassava, poultry, fish, maize, cocoa and livestock/diary.
This was disclosed in a meeting by senior officials of the apex bank to review the successes recorded under the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme and the strategies for the 2020 agricultural wet season.
It named the ABP and the Targeted Credit Facility that would support households and micro, small and medium enterprises affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the main programmes being considered by the framework.
The Director, Development Finance Department, CBN, Yila Yusuf, explained that the bank’s target for the 2020 planting season was to advance about N432bn to farmers in the value chains of nine commodities.
He said the money would be sent through the designated participating banks, adding that over 1.1 million farmers, cultivating over one million hectares of farmland were expected to benefit from the loans.
