Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has stated that the Bank's targeted interventions in the agricultural sector are not in favour of certain section of the country.
He said this during an unveiling of the first rice pyramids in South-West geo-political zone.
Emefiele called for more private sector investment in Nigeria's agricultural value chain, urging farmers to repay loans promptly to ensure sustenance of Anchor Borrowers' Programme (ABP).
He said,
The CBN is also positioned to ensure the integration of our farmers into the Government’s Economic Sustainability Program, aimed at providing 5 million homes with electricity using solar energy
We believe significant improvements in domestic production of staple food items, would help in attaining our price stability goals while reducing our dependence on imported food items
The governor stated that Nigerian youths have the talent, energy, enthusiasm, technological adoption capacity and drive to revolutionize agricultural production in Nigeria.
CBN disclosed that it finances 3,107,890 farmers for the cultivation of 3,801,397 hectares across 21 commodities through 23 participating financial institutions in all the state of the federation, adding that it plans to attain minimum of 1 million hectares of rice through a combination of RIFAN farmers and prime/private anchors for each planting season in 2021.
The bank said that the revamped Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) to commence operation by the 4th quarter of 2021.
Governor Emefiele added that attaining food sufficiency in food production will not come cheap.
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