The Central Bank of Nigeria has so far given N635.39bn to agribusinesses through the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme since the initiative was launched at the end of March this year.
“At end-March 2020, the total amount released, since inception by the CBN under the CACS to the participating banks for disbursement, amounted to N635.39bn for 608 projects, while the total amount repaid stood at N406.29bn at end-March 2020,” CBN stated.
The apex bank, in its economic report for Q1 2020, said credit worth N539.8m was guaranteed to 3,161 farmers between January and March via the programme, equivalent to a 53.9 per cent plunge compared to the figure for the last quarter of 2019.
However, it translates to a 34.8 per cent decrease relative to what was reported in the quarter in 2019.
Food crops received the biggest allocation of the eligible agriculture segments with N291.6m (54 per cent) guaranteed to 1,958 beneficiaries, while livestock came in tow with N115.2m (21.3 per cent) to 430 beneficiaries.
Cash crops took N64.9m (12 per cent) for 335 beneficiaries, fisheries N36.1m (6.7 per cent) for 121, mixed crops N16.8m (3.1 per cent) for 233 while N15.3m (2.9 per cent) favouring 84 beneficiaries were disbursed to other sectors.
Thirty states alongside the Federal Capital Territory benefitted from the credit support, which had Ogun getting the lion share of N54.8m and Nasarawa taking the smallest at N1.8m (0.3 per cent).
“Following the outbreak of the COVID-19, which led to lockdown in major cities around the globe, the Nigerian agriculture sector, in Q1 2020, witnessed a huge demand uptick arising from panic buying, mostly for essential commodities.
“The panic buying was fuelled by the speculations of economic slow-down. The development has also led to increase in commodity prices in the market,” the document added.
