The National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN) in Zamfara State has recovered 4,000 tons of cotton from the farmers in the state as repayment of loan disbursed to them under the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme for 2020/2021 cropping season.
The farmers in the state are expected to pay their loan with cotton under an agreement reached with the CBN.
Speaking shortly after the official flag off of North West Harvested Cotton and Distribution to some selected ginneries in the state which was performed by the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele in Gusau, the state chairman NACOTAN, Alhaji Sani Dahiru, said 12,290 farmers benefited from the loan.
“We are expecting the recovery of at least 10,000 tons. We have so far recovered about 40 per cent of the loan from the farmers even as we warned them that arrest and prosecution await defaulters.
“The recovered cotton would be distributed to two ginneries, that is, Inta Ginnery Ltd and ISMA Ginnery for ginning,’’ he said, adding that most of the 50 ginneries in the state were closed or working below 30 per cent capacity.
“But with this laudable initiative under the Anchor Borrowers Programme, many ginneries began operation at over 50 per cent capacity thereby making many families to get more livelihood by engaging in farming and processing activities,” he said.
He said in 2019, about 100 cotton farmers benefited under the programme with the intention of the CBN that by the year 2020, the figure would rise to 500 cotton farmers but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and insecurity, less than 200 farmers got the loan.
“With the improvement in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic and insecurity, we are making a special appeal to the CBN governor to allow one million farmers to participate in the upcoming 2021 wet season farming in the state.”
In his speech, the CBN governor, who was represented by the Branch Controller CBN Gusau, Mr Buhari Abbas, said in the 2020 wet season, CBN, through the Anchor Borrowers Programme financed over 100,000 cotton farmers.
“Of these 17,290 are Zamfara State NACOTAN farmers and additional 20,000 hectares were financed under the Prime Anchor Model, which represents over 30 per cent of the ABP cotton portfolio,” he added.
