850,000 Farmers Benefit from Anchor Borrowers Programme – CBN

• 850,000 Farmers Benefit from Anchor Borrowers Programme – CBN

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has said that over 850,000 farmers have benefitted from its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.

Emefiele, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Development Finance Department, CBN, Mr Osita Nwanisobi, said this during a financial inclusion conference as part of events to mark EFInA’S 10th anniversary in Lagos.

He also said that as part of efforts to achieve 20 per cent financial inclusion in the county by 2020, the was working toward the creation of a non-interest window for the development financing interventions, aimed at meet the needs of a large section of the population excluded due to their aversion to interest and interest-based products.

He said, “The bank introduced the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, which is designed to reach out to smallholder farmers across Nigeria. As of October 2018, over 850,000 smallholder farmers have been integrated into the mainstream financial system through the programme.”

The regulator mentioned that a disaggregation of the 2016 EFInA survey report suggested that the South-West, with 18 per cent exclusion rate had surpassed the 2020 National Financial Inclusion Strategy target of 20 per cent.

Emefiele noted that the South-East and South-South regions were making impressive progress towards the 2020 target as they posted 28 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.

The North-West and North-East had high financial exclusion rates owing to factors such as insecurity and low literacy levels within the regions, he added.

He said, “We are poised, as a bank , to ensure that we reach the target of 20 per cent exclusion rate by 2020. This will be supported by massive agent roll-out under the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility, implementation of the approved national identity management framework as well as the micro-insurance and micro-pension services, collective investment schemes and extensive collaborative programmes with government and development partners, among others.”