The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has said the bank has disbursed N41.2bn under its intervention programme dubbed, ‘The Nigerian Brown Revolution.‘
This was disclosed by the central bank governor at the recently held Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja.
Wheat, Nigeria’s third most widely consumed crop, has been a major contributor to the country’s currency rate mismatch, and the CBN’s weapon to address it is ‘The Brown Revolution.’
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What the CBN is saying
The Brown Revolution, according to the apex bank seeks to save $2 billion spent on importing five million metric tons of wheat annually.
Emefiele said, “The bank also disbursed the sum of N41.2 billion for the commencement of the brown revolution, a large-scale wheat programme to wean us off imports by 35% in the first year.”
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Emefiele went on to say that the bank had disbursed a total of N864 billion to 4.1 million farmers who cultivated 5.02 million hectares. He also said that the bank had disbursed N261.92 billion for 42 additional projects under the N1 trillion manufacturing intervention.
He said, “Cumulatively, the bank has disbursed the sum of N1.08tn under this scheme. As part of its effort to support the resilience of the healthcare sector, the bank disbursed N5.39bn to nine healthcare projects under the Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility.
“The bank has also cumulatively disbursed the sum of N108.65bn to hospitals and pharmaceutical industries; 54 of the 117 projects funded are for hospital services.”
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According to Emefiele, the apex bank funded N43.19 billion under the Anchor Borrowers’ Program between September and October 2021 to assist the cultivation of over 250,000 hectares of maize, sorghum, soya beans, and rice during the dry season of 2021. He added that the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme has disbursed N5.88 billion to finance six large-scale agricultural projects.