Under CBN, four million farmers earned N800 billion.

Yesterday, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said that the Central Bank Anchor Borrowers’ Programme has provided N800 billion to four million farmers working in various value chains (ABP).

Osinbajo said that the funds were distributed to smallholder farmers farming a range of commodities on more over five million hectares while speaking at the Feed Nigeria Summit in Abuja.

The Vice President noted that in 2015, the Federal Government launched the ABP program under the CBN with the goal of giving farmers the essential resources and input they need to boost local output.

He said that Nigeria has complex difficulties with regard to food security, for which there are no simple remedies. As a result, the present government has given agricultural priority because it recognizes the critical role that food security plays in a country’s growth.

According to Osinbajo, who was represented by Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Mohammed Abubakar, the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative generated roughly 60 million 50kg bags of NPK 20:10:10 fertilizer.

The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), he said, has been instructed to create integrated farm estates around the nation, and the organization is now employing over 1,000 young people via its National Youth Farmers Scheme.

Richard-Mark Mbaram, Director General of the Feed Nigeria Summit Secretariat, said at the occasion that the program was created to unite agricultural stakeholders and map out the future of the sector.

Among other things, he added, stakeholders at the summit will come up with solutions to the problems of appropriate food storage to lower the 50% post-harvest losses being reported in Nigeria.