33,000 farmers Get CBN Loans
No fewer than 33,974 rice farmers in Zamfara state are to benefit from the Anchor Borrowers loan of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) in Zamfara said on Thursday that the farmers have gone through biometric data capturing exercise in the state.
The Chairman of the Association, Alhaji Isyaku Ajiya-Anka, said each farmer would receive one pumping machine, 30 kilograms of rice seedlings and six bags of fertiliser.
The total loan package is N219, 329.50 per hectare.
As part of the package, the farmers will receive herbicide, pesticide, farming services, which included ploughing, harrowing, planting and harvesting.
Ajiya-Anka said the farmers would not get the cash directly.
“For farmers who do not require all the services, the cost of services not required will be used to offset part of the loan.’’
State Coordinator of CBN Anchor Borrowers, Mr. Aliyu Hafiz, said every farmer has a card which contains all his details and the required quantities of inputs he should be given.
He said the distribution of the inputs had started in seven local government areas.
The councils are Gusau, Bungudu, Gummi, Bakura, Anka, Kaura Namoda and Talata Mafara.
As at February this year, Economic Confidential recalls that in the last two years of the implementation of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, a total of N55bn has been disbursed by the Central Bank of Nigeria to over 250,000 farmers under the scheme.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Isaac Okorafor, confirmed the figure in Abuja during a media briefing on the implementation of the programme.
The ABP was launched in Kebbi State on November 17, 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
It was designed to create economic linkages between farmers and processors, not only to ensure increased agricultural output of rice and wheat, but also to close the gap between production and consumption.
The CBN had set aside N40bn out of the N220bn Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund to be given to farmers at a single, digit interest rate of nine per cent per annum.
Under the scheme, smallholder farmers are entitled to loans ranging from N150,000 to N250,000 to assist them in procuring necessary agricultural inputs such as seedlings, fertilizers and pesticides, to help boost agricultural outputs and productivity.
