Governor Godwin Emefiele of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that the apex bank’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) has created not less than 2.5 million jobs across the country.
Emefiele made this disclosure at the annual bankers’ dinner over the weekend.
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.” – Emefiele
What you should know about ABP
The CBN in line with its developmental function established the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP). The Programme which was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) on November 17, 2015, is intended to create a linkage between anchor companies involved in the processing and smallholder farmers (SHFs) of the required key agricultural commodities.
The programme thrust of the ABP is the provision of farm inputs in kind and cash
(for farm labour) to smallholder farmers to boost production of these commodities, stabilise inputs supply to agro-processors and address the country’s negative balance of
payments on food.
At harvest, the SHF supplies his/her produce to the Agro-processor (Anchor) who pays the cash equivalent to the farmer’s account. The Programme evolved from the consultations with stakeholders comprising the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, State Governors, millers of agricultural produce, and small farm holders to boost agricultural production and non-oil exports in the face of unpredictable crude oil prices and its resultant effect on the revenue profile of Nigeria.