Over N300 billion has been distributed by the Central Bank of Nigeria to firms and farmers in the Southern part of the nation as part of its interventions in the agricultural sector.
This was made public by the Governor of the apex bank while unveiling the 2020 wet season harvest aggregation and inauguration of the 2021 wet season input distribution in the South-West geopolitical zone under the CBN-RIFAN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.
The benefitting states include Lagos, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River states among others.
Contrary to an allegation that the bank’s interventions are targeted at a certain section of the country, Emefiele explained that 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.
The CBN Boss said Nigerian youths have the talent, energy, enthusiasm, technological adoption capacity and drive to revolutionize agricultural production in Nigeria.*
He assured that the CBN stood ready to offer an effective partnership to deliver on this critical national mandate of attaining self-sufficiency in food production.
He said, “Nigerian youths should embrace agriculture, as they have the talent, energy, enthusiasm, technological adoption capacity and all the right drive to revolutionise agricultural production in Nigeria.
“We must meet them halfway to ensure that we provide the enabling environment to make agriculture attractive to them. The Central Bank of Nigeria stands ready to support youths that are willing to engage in agriculture.”
