CBN counters IMF, says 52% Anchor Borrowers loan repaid

The Central Bank of Nigeria has said that the total loan repayments under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) stood 52 per cent in February.

The CBN spoke in reaction to a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which claimed that only 24 per cent of loans disbursed under the ABP had been repaid.

In its recent report titled ‘Nigeria selected issues’, the fund said agricultural credit in Nigeria has not significantly boosted production even though there is the challenge of targeting the right recipients for the credit.

But in a statement released on Monday by the acting director of corporate communications department at the CBN, AbdulMumin Isa, the apex bank disclosed that it has released N1.079 trillion as of 28 February, of which N960 billion was due for repayment.

Mr Isa said the ABP supported about 4.57 million smallholder farmers who cultivated over 6.02 million hectares of 21 commodities across the country.

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.

Citing statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA), Mr. Isa noted that the ABP also contributed significantly to the increased national output of commodities, with maize and rice peaking at 12.2 and 9.0 million metric tonnes in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

He said the programme 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 Programme’s implementation.

He also said that the repayments under the ABP are made through cash or produced by the beneficiaries.

The CBN spokesperson explained 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 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 said.

He noted that the bank’s interventions, with the core objective of catalyzing the economy’s productive base, have continued to support investments in capital assets in sectors with high-growth and employment-elastic potential.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria remains committed to its developmental mandate of stimulating access to finance for the real sector, particularly agriculture, as it continues to support the Federal Government’s drive for food security and economic growth. Accordingly, the Central Bank of Nigeria continues to welcome applications from eligible Nigerian farmers and firms under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme,” he added.

ABPThe ABP was launched in November 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari to boost agricultural production and reverse Nigeria’s negative balance of payments on food.

Smallholder farmers cultivating cereals (rice, maize, wheat, etc.) cotton, roots and tubers, sugarcane, tree crops, legumes, tomato, and livestock are those captured under this initiative.

Loans are disbursed to the beneficiary farmers through Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), and Microfinance Banks (MFBs), which the programme recognizes as Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs).

According to the guidelines of the programme, upon harvest, the farmer repays their loans by taking their harvest to ‘anchors’ who pay the cash equivalent to the farmer’s account.