20 banks disburse N610.4 billion to farmers in Q3

A total of 20 banks operating in the country 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.

From the same report, the apex bank through its Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) guaranteed a total of N390.05 million to 3,057 farmers in October 2019.

The apex bank in its economic report for October explained that the amount represented a decrease of 14.9 per cent and 11.8 per cent below the levels in the preceding month and the corresponding period of 2018, respectively.

According to the report, the subsectoral analysis showed that food crops obtained the largest share of N117.47 million (30.1 per cent) guaranteed to 783 beneficiaries, followed by Mixed crops, N114.71 million (29.4 per cent) guaranteed to 1,626 beneficiaries, and the livestock sub-sector, received N78.09 million (20.0 per cent) guaranteed to 256 beneficiaries.

The report noted that , “Cash crops, Fisheries and ‘Others’ obtained N53.31 million (13.7 per cent), N18.05 million (4.6 per cent) and N8.42 million (2.2 per cent) guaranteed to 292, 55 and 45 beneficiaries, respectively.

“Analysis by state showed that 26 states benefited from the Scheme in October 2019, with the highest and lowest sums of N111.02 million (28.5 per cent) and N1.69 million (0.4 per cent) guaranteed to Adamawa and Kano states, respectively.”

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The report explained that in October 2019, there was no disbursement under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS).

“Thus, the total sum released to the economy, under the Scheme from inception in 2009 to date, stood at N610.43 billion in respect of 593 projects. As at October 20, 2019, 52 projects repaid the sum of N4.49 billion. Of the 52 projects, 49 projects were steady repayments and three projects were full repayments.

“The repayment of N4.49 billion brought the cumulative repayment under CACS from inception in 2009 to N376.26 billion.”

According to the CBN monthly report for October, the number of projects financed under CACS by value chain indicated that of the 593 CACS sponsored projects, production activities accounted for 61.4 per cent and dominated the activities funded, while processing accounted for 27.8 per cent.

“These were followed by storage, input supplies and marketing, which accounted for 4.7 per cent, 3.4 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively,” the report by CBN for October added.