To further drive the agenda of economic diversification of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the Central Bank of Nigeria said it has disbursed about N928 Billion to farmers under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme as at December 31, 2021.
Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the CBN, made the disclosure during the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held in Abuja last week.
He revealed that the Committee reviewed the performance of the Bank’s intervention programmes aimed at stimulating productivity in manufacturing/industries, agriculture, energy/infrastructure, healthcare and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
“Between November and December 2021, under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), the Bank disbursed N75.99 billion to support the cultivation of over 383,000 hectares of maize, rice and wheat during the 2022 dry season, bringing the cumulative disbursements under the Programme to N927.94 billion to over 4.5 million smallholder farmers cultivating 21 commodities across the country,” he said.
The CBN’s helmsman said all excess output aggregated from the financed farmers will be released to the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) to help moderate the prices of food in the market. The Bank also released N1.76 billion to finance two large-scale agricultural projects under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme.
Emefiele who gave account of the Bank’s intervention programmes, said beyond the ABP, the Bank disbursed the sum of N151.23 billion under the Real Sector Facility to 15 additional projects in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and services. The funds were utilised for both greenfield and brownfield (expansion) projects under the Covid-19 Intervention for the Manufacturing Sector (CIMS) and the Real Sector Support Facility from Differentiated Cash Reserve Requirement (RSSF-DCRR).
Facility currently stood at N1.40 trillion disbursed to 331 projects across the country. As part of its effort to support the resilience of the healthcare sector, the Bank also disbursed N498.00 million to two healthcare projects under the Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility (HSIF), bringing the cumulative disbursements to N108.85 billion for 118 projects, comprising of 31 pharmaceuticals, 82 hospital and 4 other services.
To support households and businesses affected by Covid-19, the Bank disbursed N20.29 billion to 40,521 beneficiaries, comprising 35,340 households and 5,181 small businesses under the Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) within the period. The cumulative disbursements under the TCF stood at N369.78 billion to 777,666 beneficiaries, comprising 648,052 households and 129,614 small businesses. To further promote entrepreneurship development among Nigerian youths, the Bank disbursed N293 million to 59 beneficiaries under the recently introduced Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme.
Under the National Mass Metering Programme, the sum of N47.83 billion was disbursed for the procurement and installation of 858,026 electricity meters across the country under the Scheme’s Phase-0. The Committee also noted the improved collections by DisCos as a result of increased meter installations. The Bank released N274.33 billion to power sector players, as part of its effort to support the sector under the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Payment Assurance Facility (NBET-PAF).
This was in addition to the N20.58 billion released to Distribution Companies (DisCos) under the Nigeria Electricity Market Stabilisation Facility – Phase 2 (NEMSF-2). To further support the development of enabling infrastructure in the gas industry, the Bank released additional N3.00 billion for the augmentation of an existing infrastructure, bringing the cumulative disbursements under the Intervention Facility for National Gas Expansion Programme to N42.20 billion for six projects.
Furthermore, under the 100 for 100 Policy on Production and Productivity, which was introduced to stimulate the flow of finance and investments to enterprises and projects with potential to kick-start a sustainable economic growth trajectory, accelerate structural transformation, promote diversification, and improve productivity, the Bank has received 224 applications, valued at N294.91 billion for real sector projects in agriculture, energy, healthcare, manufacturing and services.
