Until Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched the anchor borrowers programme (ABP) in 2015 to checkmate issues of reliance on imported rice, Nigeria produced just about 1.5 million metric tones of rice locally out of the over 6 million metric tones it consumes. Currently, rice production in Nigeria, according to available statistics, stands at over 5 million metric tonnes, out of which about 3 million metric tonnes is a fallout of the CBN intervention in rice production, thus driving Nigeria’s import bills on rice significantly even as Nigeria is anticipated to achieve self sufficiency in rice production soon.
Since the ABP took off in 2015, over 12 States have keyed into it, while total disbursement as at June 2018 stands at about N45bn; CBN said it was the beginning of rice revolution in the country.
The programme thrust of the ABP is provision of farm inputs in kind and cash (for farm labour) to small holder farmers (SHF) to boost production of selected commodities, stabilize inputs supply to agro processors and address the country’s negative balance of payments on food. At harvest, the small holder farmer (SHF) supplies his/her produce to the Agro-processor (Anchor) who pays the cash equivalent to the farmer’s account.
Since the inception, the CBN has been improving the scheme to be more efficient and serve farmers better.
The Governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele recently at Bankers Committee Dinner in Lagos said the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) has created 2.5 million jobs across the country.
According to Emefiele, “As at October 2018, a total number of 862,069 farmers cultivating about 835,239 hectares, across 16 different commodities, have so far benefited from the Anchor Borrowers programme, which has generated over 2.5 million jobs across the country.”
“It is in light of the success of the Anchor Borrowers Program with regards to cultivation of rice and maize that the Monetary Policy Committee in its last meeting on the 21st of November 2018 recommended that the Anchor Borrowers program be applied to other areas such as palm oil, tomatoes, and fisheries to mention a few” he noted.
According to him, “the CBN recently introduced the Real Sector Support fund; a facility meant to provide cheap funding at no more than nine percent to new projects in the Agric and manufacturing sectors; aimed at boosting output and creating jobs.”
“The spread to more states have also expanded the commodities basket to agricultural commodities where each state has comparative advantage. The CBN is also presently working with about 18 private sector-led anchors on various commodities nation-wide” an CBN document showed.
The CBN also recently said about 12,000 farmers already enrolled under the auspices of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), of continuous support with a view to repositioning agriculture, both as business venture for employment generation, wealth creation and self sufficiency in food production.
At least 400,000 farmers and counting have been supported under ABP to cultivate twelve crops like rice, soya, maize, palm produce, cotton cassava among others since inception.
The CBN has advised genuine farmers to key into the technology driven input distribution system with a view to benefiting from the low interest rate of nine per cent facility – usually at 9 percent per annum.
A critical competent of the ABP is biometric capturing. The CBN said, the biometric capturing which identified farmers to specific farmland through mapping has eliminated the issue of ‘absentee’ or non-practising farmers from benefiting from the inputs and other facilities.
Thus, the CBN devised a new model that will not focus on the state governments’ apparatus but on the private sector using commodities associations in the second phase.
The target for rice production in 2018 according to the CBN is 2 million metric tones. “We are collaborating firstly, with the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria and targeting 300,000 rice farmers across the country to put at least 2 million MT of rice this year into the rice production volume. In fact, RIFAN is ready to do more so we may get more than what we projected” Mr. Okarafor explained recently at a stakeholders meeting adding that already the input distributions have commenced across the country.
He had explained that the “CBN decided to go into the funding of rice and other agricultural produces because food supply is key to price stability. We also went into funding agriculture because food is a key component of importation in Nigeria thus it’s a key component of the depletion of our foreign reserves, especially rice. We felt if we deal with rice and replace it with locally produced rice, we will be building our reserve.”
“I can tell you we have greatly succeeded. Our reserves are up and you can see what inflation is doing now. We expect that inflation will continue to drop all through the year. We expect that price of rice and other food items will crash as more Nigerians invest in agriculture. But when the prices crash locally, we can now begin to export to earn higher abroad” he explained.
On milling he had explained that “since we lunched the anchor borrowers, there have been additional investments in milling. For instance, Umza Rice in Kano has increased its capacity from 75,000 metric tones to 195,000 metric tones. Waccott rice established a new mill of 120,000 MT in Kebbi, Labana Rice in Kebbi also has 120,000MT capacity. Ebonyi state has expanded its milling capacity a part from the Ebony Rice Mill. Dangote group is planning six mills alone and we are also funding that. So farmers shouldn’t be afraid of milling capacity” he noted
Alh. Aminu Goronyo, President, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria recently noted before 2015, the Nigerian agriculture space was largely analogue but we have gone digital and we record all our productions and inputs.
“We are targeting 500,000. 200,000 dry season farmers and 300,000 wet season farmers and all the farmers have been digitally captured. We are also targeting at least 200,000 hectors of farm and 5 million jobs. Each farmer will get at least N250,000 in farm inputs” he said adding that all these will be as result of the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme.
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