CBN Disburses N1.07bn to Farmers

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that farmers benefited up to N1.07 billion under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) for the month of November 2019.

This disclosure was made in the central bank’s November 2019 Economic Report, which also noted that N611.5 billion had been disbursed to commercial agriculture since the programme started in 2009.

“In November 2019, the sum of N1.07 billion was disbursed to three projects under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme.

“The total sum released to the economy, under the scheme from inception in 2009 to date, stood at N611.5 billion in respect of 596 projects.

“In November 2019, 62 projects repaid the sum of N8.15 billion, of which payment by 59 projects were steady repayments, while three projects were full repayments.

“The repayments brought the cumulative repayment under CACS from inception in 2009 to N384.41 billion,” the report stated.

The CBN noted that a breakdown the 596 CACS sponsored projects showed that production accounted for 61.6 percent followed by processing, which accounted for 27.7 percent.

Others are: storage, input supplies and marketing, which accounted for 4.7 percent, 3.3 percent and 2.7 percent respectively.

The apex bank added that the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme saw 2,125 farmers getting a total of N388.22 million in November 2019, indicating a decrease of 0.5 percent from September 2019 and 5.3 percent and the comparative period of 2018.

By sub-sectors breakdown, food crops obtained the largest share of N182.55 million (47.0 percent) guaranteed to 1,127 beneficiaries, followed by livestock sub-sector at N84.36 million (21.7 percent) guaranteed to 351 beneficiaries; and cash crops at N36.07 million (9.3 per cent) guaranteed to 177 beneficiaries.

Fisheries, mixed crops, and ‘others’ obtained N34.39 million (8.9 per cent), N31.91 million (8.2 per cent) and N18.95 million (4.9 per cent) guaranteed to 103, 279 and 88 beneficiaries, respectively.

By states, 28 states including the FCT benefited from the scheme in November 2019 and Ogun states had the highest beneficiary of N67.49 million (17.4 percent) and Jigawa state was the lowest with N1.24 million (0.3 per cent).