President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) will on Tuesday officially launch N20billion ‘Anchor Borrowers’ Programme’ (ABP) which the Central Bank of Nigeria has set aside for rice farmers across the country.
The programme which is an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) aimed at creating an Ecosystem to link out-growers (Small Holder Farmers) to local processors will take place in Kebbi State.
Under the ABP, the CBN in a statement Saturday said it has set aside the sum of N20 billion from the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) for farmers at a single-digit interest rate of 9.0 per cent to address the challenges of poor funding.
The Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele who met with rice producers and millers recently, said that the developmental initiatives programme has been designed to create economic linkages between farmers and processors to not only ensure increased agricultural output of rice paddy, but also importantly close the gap between production and consumption by ramping up utilisation capacity of Nigeria’s integrated rice mills.
Emefiele said If these noble objectives can be achieved, it is not unlikely that the country will require even more integrated milling capacity to meet the huge local production of rice paddy.
