Benefiting farmers under the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN's Anchor Borrowers' Programme have paid back over N7 billion from the loans they got under the programme, the apex bank said on Wednesday.
The bank said this was contrary to insinuations in some quarters that the farmers were unwilling to pay back their loans.
The CBN spokesperson, Isaac Okorafor said details of the loan disbursement and repayment as at March 31 was that the farmers have so far repaid about N7.119 billion out of a total of N33.34 billion released to them.
The loans were disbursed through the 12 participating financial institutions to 146,557 farmers across 21 states cultivating over 180,018 hectares of land.
Mr. Okorafor said of the total amount released to date, about N15.137 billion disbursed to 73,941 farmers in Kebbi State was due for repayment. It is some of the benefitting Kebbi farmers that repaid about N7.119 billion.
A PREMIUM TIMES investigation had showed how thousands of Kebbi farmers benefitted from the Anchor Borrowers' Programme as well as its successes and challenges.
The repaid amount, which had since been returned to the CBN by the participating banks, represents about 47 per cent of the total amount to be repaid by the Kebbi farmers.
The Central Bank said the balance of N18.203 billion of the 12 months tenured loans released to farmers in the other 20 states for two cropping (wet and dry) seasons was not yet due for repayment.
However, Mr. Okorafor said, farmers in other benefiting states have also commenced the repayment to the tune of N1.238 billion, which is already being transferred to the CBN.
"Efforts are currently being made by the participating state governments to ensure that all outstanding loans are repaid by the farmers as soon as they are due before commencement of the next dry season cultivation.
"This is to enable the CBN extend similar gestures to farmers in other states, which have indicated interest in participating in the Anchor Borrowers Programme," Mr. Okorafor said.
Under the programme, six commodities, namely, rice, wheat, maize, soya beans, cotton and fish were cultivated by the farmers with appreciable yields achieved.
Kebbi State alone accounts for about two million metric tonnes of rice, out of estimated four million metric tonnes so far realized under the programme nationwide.
Source: AllAfrica
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