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Tag: Anchor Borrowers Programme ( ABP )

  • ’21 Abia maize farmers make N162.4mn after harvest’

    21 smallholder maize farmers in Abia state have realized N162, 480,000.00 after harvest under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP)

    The Nigeria Incentive- Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) in a statement issued on Thursday said it is concluding Harvest and Post-harvest activities for maize in Lokpa Nta and Umunneochi Local Government Areas of Abia State under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).

    The harvest processes include handling, storage, processing, transportation and off-take.

    NIRSAL, a Participating Financial Institution (PFI) in the ABP, is supporting 387 maize farmers belonging to the Kelechik Out-growers scheme. As part of a trial phase, NIRSAL said it “has successfully harvested an initial 21 Hectares of land belonging to 21 smallholder farmers while arrangements have been concluded for the outstanding 366 farmers to participate in the 2019 Wet Season farming.”

    Read Also: Abia Warriors’ job excites Makinwa

    According to NIRSAL “with the end-to-end use of mechanisation starting from the pre-planting phase, the maize crops were harvested, dehusked, threshed, weighed and transported to a produce drop point for storage and eventual delivery. The harvest amounted to 1,354 tonnes of maize valued at N162, 480,000.00.”

    Under the NIRSAL model, smallholder farmers are closely supported throughout the production phase up till the point of off-take.

    “As part of efforts to ensure optimum yield, farmers are trained on Best Agronomic Practices and Farm Management to prepare them for the transition from smallholder farming to Agribusiness” the statement said.

    Farmers under the scheme expressed their delight and appreciation to NIRSAL for building their capacity, empowering them and improving their yields, incomes and livelihoods through the project.

     

  • Heritage Bank restates commitment to agriculture

    Heritage Bank Plc says it is committed to the sustenance, growth and development of the nation’s agricultural sector.

    Mr Fela Ibidapo, Divisional Head of Corporate Communications, Heritage Bank, said this in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos.

    Ibidapo said the bank was committed to leading the way in agricultural financing in the country.

    He said that the bank was currently funding various agricultural projects in several states of the country, especially in Oyo, Kaduna and Zamfara states.

    He said Heritage Bank had entered into a partnership with the Oyo State Government to support the multi-billion Oyo State Agricultural Initiative ( OYSAI ), a programme designed to revive agriculture.

    According to him, it will also boost agro-allied businesses and empower the youth and women across the state through the creation of thousands of jobs in the sector.

    “Heritage Bank is also supporting an agro-investor, Triton Aqua Africa Ltd ( TAAL ), with a N2 billion facility, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN ), under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme ( CACS ).

    “The facility will enable TAAL to set up a fishery production chain in Lagos, Oyo and Osun states,” he added.

    Ibidapo said support to the agro-investor became imperative after research showed that Nigerians consume about 2.7 million metric tonnes of fish yearly, compared to 800,000 metric tonnes, produced locally annually.

    “Consequently, the country has had to rely on importation to augment the shortfall with an estimated cost implication of about $700 million yearly in foreign exchange.

    “The partnership between Heritage Bank and TAAL will help reverse the trend; and the firm will use the facility to expand its aquaculture businesses.

    This, he also said would be done by setting up a nursery or hatchery for the production of fingerlings and brood stock, as well as earthen ponds for catfish and tilapia in the three states.

    Ibidapo said that “Under the arrangement, TAAL is expected to assist small-scale farms in the three states to increase their fish production by making fingerlings available to them.

    “In the short term, the loan is expected to help the group double its current production capacity of 25,000 metric tonnes with a projection to scale it up to 100,000 metric tonnes in five years.’’

    “Ultimately, the partnership between Heritage Bank and TAAL will help to boost local production, conserve scarce foreign exchange and enhance food security, and ultimately result in the creation of hundreds of new jobs.

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    “Heritage Bank is also supporting thousands of smallholder farms in Kaduna and Zamfara states.”

    The spokesman said that smallholder farmers stand to benefit from the bank’s financial support for rice and soya beans production under the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme  ( ABP ).

    Ibidapo said the bank’s drive to support the agriculture sector was an act of patriotism aimed at helping government’s desire to achieve food security and sufficiency in the country.

    It is also based on the conviction that agribusiness could be profitable, he said.

    He noted that there were myriads of constraints facing the agriculture sector such as poor road network and electricity supply to farmlands that were mostly located in the rural areas, “while majority of the smallholder farms are financially excluded with no access to banking services.’’

    He said the bank was taking steps to clear the bottlenecks for smallholder farmers who wished to gain access to banking services.

    NAN

     

     

     

  • Kebbi, FG partners to revive Argungun fishing festival

    Kebbi, FG partners to revive Argungun fishing festival

    Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Bagudu, yesterday said plans have reached advanced stage with the Federal Government to revive the popular Argungun fishing festival.

    The governor said, the fishing festival was earlier suspended in the state due to Boko Haram insurgency.

    Bagudu, who spoke during media briefing in Kebbi, revealed on going moves to seek supports from both private and public sector to boost the tourism sector and make the festival an international affair.

    “We always avoid the raining season and there are lots of infrastructure decay and  accommodation problem because of the suspension, so we want to upgrade them all. That’s what we are doing with the federal ministry of Information,” he said.

    The governor called for greater funding for the sector, especially through the Anchor Borrowers Programme ( ABP ) to increase rice production in the 36 states.

    According to him, the N54 billion disbursed for the ABP across the federation was insufficient, thus need for the federal government to consider upward review of the loan.

    Bagudu insisted that the N54 billion was very little compared to what’s alloted to develop other sectors such as banking as well as oil and gas sectors.

    “Let me use this medium to call for more greater lending to agriculture and better public support. For instance, NNPC indicated that fuel subsidy alone is about N180 billion. Yet, lending to agriculture to farmers across 36 states is just N54 billion,” he added.

    While calling for massive investments in Agriculture, he said, “countries that achieved food sufficiency spent decades supporting agriculture, subsidizing among other producer supports.”

    The Governor, who acknowledged water as major challenge, said rice farmers cultivated on 400, 000 hectares of land.

    He said cost of purchasing fuel increased to as high as N300 per litre, which according to him led the state government to partner with major fuel stations and the Kebbi State Assembly to subsidise the product.

  • CBN spends N55bn to improve local food production

    CBN spends N55bn to improve local food production

    The Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN ), says it has disbursed N55 billion to more than 250,000 farmers within two years of implementation of the Anchor Borrowers Programme ( ABP ).

    The Acting-Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Isaac Okorafor confirmed the figure on Wednesday in Abuja during a media briefing on the implementation of the programme.

    The ABP was launched in Kebbi State on Nov. 17, 2015, by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    It was designed to create economic linkages between farmers and processors, not only to ensure increased agricultural output of rice and wheat, but also close the gap between production and consumption.

    Okorafor was accompanied to the briefing by the Special Adviser to the CBN Governor, Mr Olatunde Akande, and top executive of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria ( RIFAN ) led by its President, Alh. Aminu Gorongo.

    Okorafor said that out of the N55 billion provided by the apex bank to farmers, 80 per cent of the amount, N44 billion was given to rice farmers alone.

    He said the need to provide rice farmers adequate funding was to ensure self sufficiency in rice production and to also ensure that Nigeria becomes a net exporter of the product.

    “It goes to underscore the effectiveness and efficiency that the CBN has put into this programme.

    “We have assisted about 250,000 farmers across Nigeria to cultivate close to 300,000 hectares of farmlands and you can see the impact on the streets’’ he said.

    In his remarks, the RIFAN president Gorongo said that the association was partnering with the CBN to increase rice production by two million tonnes in 2018.

    He said under the new ABP partnership between the CBN and RIFAN, 200,000 farmers would be given fresh funds to plant rice in the dry season farming.

    According to him, another 500,000 rice farmers would also be mobilised during the wet season farming.

    Gorongo said that through the funding, the farmers would be able to employ a total of five million people to work on rice production value chain during the period.

    He said so far, farmers in about 34 states were presently under the new ABP with RIFAN.

    “We have started collaboration with the CBN to have a private sector driven ABP, which means that under this new agreement, the state governments are not involved.

    “We have launched this programme to put this country on the right part, especially in the area of agri-business.’’

    Also speaking, Akande, the Special Assistant to the CBN Governor on Development Finance, said the ABP had been digitised to keep account of the activities of all the farmers involved.

    According to him, under the new agreement with RIFAN, each farmer’s identity, home address, farm location and other vital information has been captured and each farmer is given a biometric card.

    He said the new system would help resolve the issue of delay in payments to farmers and also the recoupment of funds borrowed out by the CBN.

    “We have successfully digitally mapped all the farmers that are participating in the projects. This makes the new programme reliable, accessible and verifiable.

    “The digitisation will ensure that no farmer will collect payment and refuse to pay. So loan repayment is guaranteed.

    “Also, in the new agreement, RIFAN will provide training, and ensure that whatever is given to the farmers are well utilised.

    “Depending on the season and the crop which is being cultivated, each farmer will get a support of about N250, 000 per hectare,’’ he said.

    NAN

  • Rice farmers want FG to review conditions for ABP loans

    Rice farmers want FG to review conditions for ABP loans

    Alhaji Muatari Sani, Chairman, Rice Farmers Association in Katsina Senatorial Zone, has urged the Federal Government to review the conditions for granting loans to rice farmers under the Anchor Borrowers Programme ( ABP ).

    He made the call in an interview on Wednesday in Katsina.

    Sani said: “The system of granting loans to rice farmers under the Anchor Borrowers Programme ( ABP ) is flawed, as the farmers are often short-changed by off-takers who supply farm inputs and equipment.

    “The companies which supply water pumping machines, rice seedlings and other inputs usually provide the wrong materials to the farmers.

    “This year, for instance, rice farmers were provided with sub-standard rice seedlings that grow very tall and produce less rice.”

    Sani said that the panacea to the problem was for the Federal Government to deal directly with rice farmers, rather than through third parties.

    “In Katsina State, there are different varieties of rice that grow well in different zones. The rice seedling in the Funtua Zone would not thrive well in the Katsina Zone,” he said.

    Sani, however, urged the Federal Government to sustain the ABP in order to cater to the needs of rice farmers across the country.

    He said that in spite of the challenges facing rice farmers, they were able to produce large quantities of rice this year.

    It can be recalled that Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN ) granted N2 billion ABP loans to rice farmers in the 34 local government areas of Katsina State in 2017 to boost rice production.

    NAN

  • Nigeria cultivates only 40% of its arable land – Sen. Adamu

    Nigeria cultivates only 40% of its arable land – Sen. Adamu

    Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, says that only 40 per cent of Nigeria’s arable land is under cultivation.

    Adamu, who said this in an interview on Monday in Abuja, called for increased investments in agriculture, as the situation had elicited serious concern.

    He said that one good thing that the recent economic recession had done to Nigeria was that people from all walks of life were now going into agriculture.

    On some reports that foreigners had taken over farming in the country, the senator said that the Nigerian economy was a free and open economy.

    “We need large-scale farming to increase our agricultural output if we are talking about food security.

    “Yes, we have been fed by peasant farmers, smallholder farmers in this country for quite a long time,’’ he said.

    Adamu noted that one of the reasons why the country had not been able to attain food security was because smallholder farmers had certain limitations, including how to use the little funds at their disposal in a pragmatic way.

    “The smallholder farmer also has limits regarding the land he owns, how much money he requires to invest on it and the equipment he needs to some extent,” he said.

    Adamu said that as a country, Nigeria had decided to transit from smallholder farming to medium or large scale farming activities.

    He said that most farmers had some waiting period for them to mature, in terms of attaining all the requirements for large scale farming.

    “In the interim, if foreign investors can come in, on terms that are acceptable by government through policy, there is nothing wrong with it,” he said.

    On reports of kidnapping of farmers in the northern part of the country, Adamu said: “I don’t know if that is completely true or correct.

    “I accept the fact that there has been some degree of exposure of insecurity in farms across the country.

    “It is not something that is just in the northern part of Nigeria, but what I do know is that government is striving to check the development.

    “I know government has taken very specific steps to combat it,’’ he added.

    The lawmaker said that government was deploying security outfits to farms, while that the Ministry of Interior was training young men and women to provide security in farms.

    “We cannot be everywhere but at least, for a start, we cover substantially some of the farms where we know huge investments have been made, or where we know there is a menace of disruption of farm activities by these men of the terror world.

    “Government is trying to make sure that the farms have some level of security. It is a national phenomenon and we are seeing it in that light: We are taking the steps that are absolutely necessary to contain the menace,” he said.

    While assessing the Anchor Borrowers Programme ( ABP ) of the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN ), Adamu said that unfortunately, the programme was not quite going round all the 36 states.

    The Anchor Borrowers Programme is designed to create a linkage between companies that are involved in processing of key agricultural commodities and smallholder farmers, among other things.

    Adamu said there was concentration of ABP projects in certain parts of the country, while some areas have yet to benefit from the programme.

    “Like anything in the world, everything has teething problems in the beginning; we can forgive the concentration in one part of the country to the detriment of the other part.

    “The good excuse we have is that the programme is just beginning and it has recorded some successes by the grace of God.

    “The CBN is anchoring the ABP projects through its various intervention funds and this is doing a lot of good to us,” he said.

    NAN