CBN Disburses N635.9bn To Farmers Under CACS, ACGSF

The Central Bank of Nigeria has released a total of N635.9bn to Deposit Money Banks and other Participating Financial Institutions to fund agricultural credits across the country.

The amount covers the value injected into the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme and the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund.

The apex bank made this known in a report seen by THE WHISTLER, where it said N635.39bn out of the amount was released to banks to fund the country’s Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme.

The bank revealed that the funding for the CACS covers the amount disbursed since inception in 2009 to March 2020.

CBN said that it also injected N539.8m in Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme in the first quarter of 2020 alone.

The two schemes were both introduced by Nigeria’s apex bank to finance agricultural enterprises.

CACS specifically is targeted at accelerating the development of the agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy through the provision of credit facilities to large-scale commercial farmers at a single digit interest rate of nine per cent.

The report revealed that as of March 2020, the N635.39bn released to the participating banks for disbursement under CACS was targeted at 608 projects.

The bank said the total amount repaid on the CACS since inception stood at N406.29bn at the end of March 2020.

According to the apex bank, 19 Deposit Money Banks participated in the CACS.

CBN disbursed a total of N353.61bn to tier- one banks while the leading banks have made a total repayment of N256.38bn.

The banks include Access Bank Plc, First Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and Zenith Bank Plc.

On CBN’s Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme, the apex bank reduced its funding by 17.6 per cent to N539.8m in the first three months of 2020.

The scheme is targeted at providing guarantee on loans granted by banks to farmers for agricultural production and agro-allied processing.

The apex bank had guaranteed a total of N654.9m to 6,281 farmers in the first quarter of 2019.

The N539.8m guaranteed in 2020 represents a decrease of 17.58 percent below the levels in the corresponding period of 2019.

Details of the report showed that a total of N539.8m loan was guaranteed to 3,161 farmers under the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme during the three months.

Sub-sectorial analysis showed that food crops obtained the largest share of the total, with N291.6m, representing 54.0 pe rcent guaranteed to 1,958 beneficiaries.

According to the apex bank, the livestock sub- sector followed with N115.2m guaranteed to 430 beneficiaries, representing 21.3 per cent of the total.

The report showed further that the cash crops sub- sector secured a total of N64.9m guaranteed to 335 beneficiaries, representing 12 per cent of the fund released by the CBN.

Fisheries sub- sector received N36.1m, representing 6.7 per cent guaranteed to 121, 233 farmers.

Mixed crops and ‘Others’ received N16.8m (3.1 per cent) and N15.3m (2.9 per cent), respectively, guaranteed to 84 beneficiaries.

Distribution by states showed that 30 states and the Federal Capital Territory benefited from the Scheme between January to March 2020.

CBN said that the highest sum of N54.8m was guaranteed to Ogun State, representing 10.2 per cent of the fund.

Nasarawa State received the lowest sum of N1.8m in the first three months of 2020.