16th May, 2012
The Federal Government has moved to boost food security through the issuance of N200 billion bonds for seven years tenure floated by the Debt Management Office, DMO.
The fund is channeled through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s, Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme, CACS. The scheme is meant only for practicing farmers and coordinated by the CBN in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with the aim of promoting commercial agriculture enterprises in the country.
Disclosing this during a monitoring visit to one of the beneficiary farms, Akin Sateru Farms, in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, the CBN’s team leader, Mr. Lawrence Odey said the CACS scheme was also to complement government’s programmes in providing funding for agriculture such as the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS), which is mostly for small scale farmers.
Odey restated the commitment of the bank towards increasing food sufficiency through the Apex Bank’s CACS, saying that the credit scheme had provided several billions of naira to commercial farmers and that the results of the investments in commercial agriculture had been phenomenal.
He added that the objectives of the CACS included fast-tracking development of agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy by providing credit facilities to commercial agricultural enterprises at a single digit interest rate and to enhance national food security by increasing food supply and effecting lower agricultural produce and product prices, thereby promoting low food inflation.
Others are to reduce the cost of credit in agricultural production in order to enable farmers exploit the potential of the sector; as well as to increase output, generate employment, diversify the revenue base, increase foreign exchange earnings.
—Kazeem Ugbodaga