CBN to disburse ABS loans

APPARENTLY IMPRESSED BY THE SUC CESS recorded so far under its Anchor Borrowers Scheme’s (ABS) loan disbursement to smallholder farmers nationwide, the Central Bank of Nigeria...

APPARENTLY IM PRESSED BY THE SUCCESS recorded so far under its Anchor Borrowers Scheme’s (ABS) loan disbursement to smallholder farmers nationwide, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed some participating farmer groups under the scheme to begin the compilation of large scale farmers who will benefit in the second phase of the scheme’s implementation.

Businessa.m gathered exclusively at the weekend that some of the groups contacted about two weeks ago by the apex bank to compile the list of potential beneficiaries under the second phase are working very hard to ensure that the list submitted for screening contain only genuine farmers in the relevant crop covered under the scheme.

A source in the know of the latest directive and leader in one of the farmers’ associations, who pleaded that her name should not be in print, told our correspondent that the compilation of the names had started in most rice, groundnut and maize producing states in the North East and North Central zones.

According to her, the groups are excited about the latest directives from the CBN due to the experiences they had during the first phase when thousands of smallholder farmers, especially smallholder women farmers, were able to access the loans at minimal costs and with ease.

She said: “Yes, I can confirm to you that the CBN is already making efforts to make sure that large scale farmers benefit under what we now call the second phase. I think this is due to the fact that the groups demonstrated that they have organized farmers who are committed to loan repayment as against the past when default rate on this type of loan is very high.

“Now, the government is focusing on large scale farmers. We have just received a letter from the Central Bank of Nigeria to compile the list of those farmers that are cultivating between 20 – 100 hectares, 100 – 200 hectares and 200 hectares and above.

“The government is now going to focus on those large scale farmers under the ABS to scale up their farming activities so that they continue to bolster rice production in this country. We are very impressed with this ABS and other interventions by the CBN”, the farmer added.

The ABS was launched by President Muhammadu Buharion November 17, 2015 and specifically designed to create a linkage between anchor companies involved in the processing and small holder farmers (SHFs) of the required key agricultural commodities.

According to the CBN, the targeted commodities of comparative advantage to the state under the scheme include but not limited rice, maize, wheat, cassava, potatoes, yam, ginger, cocoa, rubber and oil palm, amongst others.