By Chesa Chesa
As food prices continue to spiral across the country, with some commodities becoming scarce, it has become imperative for government to intensify its intervention in Nigeria’s agriculture sector in order to ensure the national food security it has always preached.
While the Ministry of Agriculture has a traditional role in this quest, it has been encouraging the interventions of the government through Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has been capping its mandatory monetary policies regulations roles with several programmes towards assisting farmers provide more food for the nation.
Penultimate weekend in Kaduna, the CBN flagged off the sales of nine million metric tons of rice paddy to millers; as well as the distribution of farm implements, fertilizers and inputs to rice farmers for the 2021 wet season farming. It did this through the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN). This is in addition to several loans advanced to the farmers before now.
At the flag-off ceremony, the Governor of CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, noted that the apex had been supporting a lot of agricultural initiative to boost agricultural production in Nigeria.
Represented by the Kaduna Branch Controller of the CBN, Ahmad Muhammad Wali, the Governor expressed delight that the rice farmers have made impressive efforts to repay the loans given to them. He, therefore, urged farmers in other value chains to emulate rice farmers so that, the money can reinvested in other food value chains.
The CBN’s effort was applauded by RIFAN President, Alhaji Aminu Goronyo, who announced that with nine million metric tons of annual rice production, Nigeria is now self sufficient in rice and almost ready for exportation. He pointed out that “since 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria has made deliberate policy not to release forex to the importers of rice. That is to say that all the rice that we have been consuming in Nigeria since 2015 were produced locally.
“We have subsidized the paddy that we are selling to the Nigerian Rice Millers through the CBN and we have confidence that as patriotic Nigerians, they will also sell to consumers at affordable rate. We have been assured by the Director-General of the millers association that they will replicate our gesture by also selling the milled rice to Nigerians at affordable rate.
“We have sold the paddy to the rice millers at N190 per kilogram as against the price range of N200 and N230 per kilogram sold elsewhere.
The directive came from the CBN that we subsidized the price, so that, the millers can also sell to Nigerians at a cheap rate.”
Only recently too, the CBN approved the release of 50,000 metric tonnes of maize to 12 major producers, from the Strategic Maize Reserve (SMR) under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) in a bid to moderate and control the prices of maize in the Nigerian market as well as check the activities of middlemen who hoard the produce and cause artificial scarcity.
The recipients of the grains include Premier Flour Mills, Crown-Olam, Grand Cereals, Animal Care, Amobyn Farms, Hybrid Feeds, Obasanjo Farms, Zartech, Wacot, Sayeed Farms, Pandagri Novum and Premium Farms. In the light of this development, CBN’s Director of Corporate Communication Department, Mr. Osita Nwanisobi expressed optimism that the release would crash the price of maize, reduce pressure on the market, and make the product directly available to feed producers.
Nwanisobi further gave the assurance that the CBN would continue to facilitate the funding of maize farmers and processors through the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) Commodity Association, Private/Prime Anchors, State Governments, Maize Aggregation Scheme (MAS), and the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS). The CBN had before then, in January 2021, released 300,000 metric tonnes of maize, which forced the substantial reduction in the price of maize per metric tonne; just as it happened to rice when it collaborated with RIFAN to distribute 27,000 metric tonnes of rice paddies directly to millers nationwide.
These efforts of the CBN towards ensuring national food security have not gone unnoticed, even from non agriculture stakeholders. The APC Legacy Awareness and Campaign Group recently highlighted the apex bank’s interventions as critical to President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s agricultural revolution. The group, in a statement signed by its coordinators, Ismail Ahmed, Lanre Issa-Onilu, Tolu Ogunlesi and Salihu Moh Lukman, said that the Buhari administration is moving Nigeria steadily towards self-sufficiency in food production courtesy of numerous programmes, including the Anchors Borrowers Programme (ABP).
The ABP led and implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was launched by President Buhari on November 17, 2015, in Kebbi State.
“Since then, it has provided more than N300 billion to more than 3.1 million smallholder farmers of 21 different commodities (including Rice, Wheat, Maize, Cotton, Cassava, Poultry, Soya Beans, Groundnut, Fish), across Nigeria, successfully cultivating over 3.8 million hectares of farmland, and helping agriculture enjoy the enviable feat of being the only sector of the Nigerian economy that has consistently posted positive growth rates since 2015”, the group noted.
All in all, the CBN has proved a dependable ally in supporting other government efforts towards providing more food on the table of Nigerians, like Agriculture for Food and Jobs Plan (AFJP), National Livestock Transformation Plan, and National Fertiliser Initiative (NFI).
Indeed, the CBN has disbursed funds of about N107.60 billion to 548,109 farmers cultivating 703,619 hectares of land between fourth quarter 2020 and first quarter 2021 to boost dry season output in support of agricultural value chain development. Disbursements as at end of February 2021 amounted to N1.487 trillion under the various agricultural programmes. Out of this, N686.59 billion was disbursed under the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS) and N601.75 billion under the Anchor Borrowers Programmes (ABP) to 3,038,649 farmers to support food supply and whittle inflation
The CBN has also authorised commercial banks to give up to N2 billion maximum loan to youths interested in going into agriculture under the Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (AADS). The loans come at five per cent interest rate per annum, and the scheme was created by the CBN in collaboration with state governments to engage 370,000 youths in agricultural production.
With the CBN continuing to leverage on the assured support from the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the nation’s quest dir food sufficiency will hopefully remain achievable and sustainable.
She added that the Medium Term Fiscal Framework showed that there are continuing global challenges in the aftermath of the COVID-19.
Also at the meeting, the Council was informed that the issue of the repayment of the Budget Support Facility has now been resolved after a meeting presided over earlier this week by the Vice-President, Governor Kayode Fayemi, representing the States, the Finance Minister, and the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele. Under the new arrangement, the Central Bank of Nigeria has offered a fresh bridging financing to States as they resume the repayment of the FG-backed Facility.
