Zenith, GTBank, Access Bank, FBN, 16 others disburse CBN’s N610.4 billion to farmers

Zenith Bank Plc,  GTBank Plc, Access Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, Citibank Plc and 15 others have disbursed N610.4 billion for 593 projects in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS), CBN’s third quarter (Q3) 2019 economic report revealed.

According to the report, while Zenith Bank disbursed N123.91 billion, UBA Plc released N83.53 billion, followed by Sterling Bank Plc, which gave N72.43 billion. FBN (N52.99billion), GTBank (N39.85 billion), Keystone (N30.05 billion), Unity Bank (N29.80 billion), Union Bank Plc (N28.96 billion) and Fidelity Bank (N23.67 billion), among others.
The fund is made available to participating banks to finance commercial agricultural enterprises at a maximum interest rate of 9%.

In addition, each State Government could borrow up to N1.0 Billion for on-lending to farmers’ cooperative societies and other areas of agricultural development provided such initiatives/interventions are in line with the objectives of CACS.
Highlights of the scheme
It has empowered over 1 million people across rural communities as over N600 billion for 593 projects has been disbursed since inception in 2009
At end-September 2019, the total amount repaid since inception stood at N368.0 billion at end-June 2019.

In the third quarter of 2019, agricultural activities intensified, due, largely, to increased rainfall experienced in most parts of the country.
Farming activities were centred majorly on the harvest of agricultural produce during the quarter.
In a bid to curb the farmers/herders clash and ensure a well-integrated meat/dairy industry, a pilot phase of the Livestock Transformation Plan was flagged off in Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba and Zamfara states.
The Plan was targeted at supporting the development of the country’s livestock sub-sector.
The report also disclosed that a total of N1.214billion loan was guaranteed to 9,752 farmers under the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) by the end of Q3 2019. This represented an increase of 41.7% above the level in the preceding quarter but was 14.6% below the level in the corresponding quarter of 2018.
The sub-sectorial analysis showed that food crops received the largest share of N595.5 million (49%) guaranteed to 5,436 beneficiaries
Mixed crops got N221.8 million (18.3%) guaranteed to 2,472 beneficiaries
Livestock had N174.5 million (14.4%) guaranteed to 690 beneficiaries
Cash crops, fisheries and ‘Others’ got N106.5 million (8.8%), N84.4 million (6.9%) and N31.5 million (2.6%), guaranteed to 629, 321 and 204 beneficiaries, respectively.
Analysis by state showed that 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory benefited from the Scheme in the review quarter, with the highest and lowest sums of N142.9 million (11.8%) and N2.6 million (0.2%) guaranteed to Adamawa and Jigawa states, respectively.