By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said it will be sharing the losses of farmers on its Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) on equal basis should such loses occur within a farming season.
The CBN Director, Development Finance Mr. Yusuf Yila disclosed this Tuesday during the 2020 dry season stakeholders’ forum in Abuja.
The stakeholders meeting involved anchor/processors, commodity associations and participating financial institutions (PFIs).
The aim of the forum is to get all stakeholders bare their mind as to what challenges they face in driving dry season farming and to also expose CBN 2020 dry season programme.
Speaking during the opening ceremony, Mr. Yila said the decision to share risks equally with farmers demonstrates CBN’s commitment to drive food sufficiency in Nigeria.
He said for this year’s dry season farming, will be focusing on rice maize and tomatoes.
He said the CBN wants to improve yields of these crops as the failure of dry season farming could spell catastrophe on food security. Already the prices of these commodities have spiked in the markets.
He also revealed that the CBN is willing to finance the growing of wheat in Nigeria.
He called on farmers who are willing to go into wheat farming to get viable fields and the CBN will finance it.
“We are also doing pilot for wheat and the CBN willl fund it” he said adding that the CBN is willing to support the Nigerian farmers to do the 6 million metric tones of wheat Nigeria imports annually”, he said.
The CBN also urged the banks to improve financing to farmers adding that sanctions will apply if banks fail to finance agriculture.
