The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has commended beneficiaries of the Anchor Borrowers’ Program (ABP) for being faithful with the regular payment of their loans, disclosing that total repayments as of February 2023 stood at N0.503 trillion, representing 52.39 percent, even though the balance of N0.119 trillion was not due for repayment.
Dr. AbdulMumin Isa, the acting director of the corporate communications department, disclosed this in Abuja while discussing with journalists the performance of the ABP, adding that the bank remains committed to its developmental mandate of stimulating access to finance for the real sector.
Isa made it known that the apex bank, through the ABP, has supported 4.57 million smallholder farmers across the country who cultivated over 6.02 million hectares of 21 commodities as of the end of February 2023.
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He listed the commodities to include rice, wheat, cowpea, millet, maize, cotton, fish, soya bean, poultry, cassava, groundnut, ginger, sorghum, oil palm, cocoa, sesame, tomato, castor seed, yellow pepper, onions, and cattle/dairy.
The CBN boss said the program had also helped to improve the national average yield per hectare of these commodities, with productivity per hectare almost doubling within the eight years of the program’s implementation.
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He noted that repayments under the ABP are made through cash or produce provided by the beneficiaries, adding that the outstanding due balance on loans was still under moratorium due to the COVID-19 forbearance granted to beneficiaries of the Bank’s interventions in March 2020 and extended to February 28, 2022.
“It is pertinent to note that the tenor of loans under the ABP is based on the commodity gestation period. For instance, loans granted to farmers cultivating some perennial crops could have up to seven-year tenor,” he explained.
