Posted on: 09:02 Sat, 14 Nov 2015



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.

Source: Vanguard