CBN Guarantees N131 Billion Loans For Farmers

N1.232 million loans have been guaranteed by the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund, which is managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, to be given to farmers across the country.

The loan was estimated at N130.903 billion monetary value. The apex bank also challenged farmers to join hands in revitalising the country’s $430 billion economy by enhancing value-addition and diversification.

Stephen Okon, the Chairman, ACGSF, said, “A total of 1,232,326 loans valued N130.903 billion were guaranteed from inception to May 2022 out of which 973,646 beneficiaries had repaid a total of N98.91 billion.”

He also added that a total of 82 loans, valued at N22.580 million under the scheme has been guaranteed by the Federal Capital Territory from January to May 2022.

According to him, this brought the total guaranteed loans in the FCT from inception of the scheme in 1978 to May 2022 to 14,258, valued N1.748 billion.

Speaking on loan recovery, Okon said 11,726 loans valued at N801.058 million were repaid under the scheme in the FCT from inception.

“We do hope that before long, participants in the agricultural value chain in the FCT will take advantage of the opportunities provided in the Amended Act,” he said.

Okon further explained that  disbursement was a way and supporting the agricultural sector.

“Truly, the Federal Government, through the ACGSF scheme as well as other development finance interventions of the CBN, has continued to promote the quest for the nation to attain food sufficiency,” he noted.

The Abuja Branch Controller, CBN, Michael Onyeka Ogbu, said the ceremony was an expression of the apex bank’s management’s commitment to supporting hard work, innovation, and productivity in the agricultural value chain.

“To this end, the CBN challenges Nigerian farmers to explore our various agricultural interventions aimed at enhancing value addition to their output towards attaining food self-sufficiency, provision of raw materials to our manufacturing industries and also for export, which ultimately assists in diversifying and improving the foreign exchange earnings base of our economy,” he said.