ABP: Buhari to Unveil CBN, RIFAN Largest Rice Pyramids

President Muhammadu Buhari will unveil one million bags of rice paddy stacked as pyramids in Abuja.

Considered to be the biggest of its type in Africa, the pyramids are located on the grounds of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) on Airport Road.

The rice pyramids were built with 1 million bags of rice paddy planted and harvested from states across the country under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).

The bags of rice paddy that formed the pyramids were recovered from farmers in lieu of cash to pay back for the loans they collected under the ABP.

A worker of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who spoke in confidence, said: “The paddy recovery is an ongoing effort as harvests are never concluded at the same time.

“Aggregated paddy for the pyramids across the country is a fraction of the recovered paddies. The ones used at the unveiling represent about 25 per cent of the loan amount.”

The CBN, he explained, “is marching rice millers with the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) to off-take the paddy mill and supply the Nigerian markets”.

He added: “We have set up machineries to prevent hoarding and ensure the milled rice is sold to Nigerians.”

CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele recently announced that “between September and October 2021, under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), the CBN disbursed N43.19 billion to support the cultivation of over 250,000 hectares of maize, sorghum, soya beans and rice during the 2021 dry season”.

The Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) of the
CBN was launched in November 2015 to bring relief to farmers and impact the value chain of different crops in Nigeria.

Read More: CBN to Promote Nigeria’s Agricultural Value Chain with Ekiti Rice Pyramid Project, Target 12,000 Farmers

From an average yield of 1.8 metric tonnes per hectare in the pre-ABP era, the initiative has increased the average yield for rice paddy and maize to about 4 to 5 metric tonnes per hectare.

There has been a 95 per cent reduction in the Nigeria’s rice import bill – from a $1.05 billion prior to 2015 to the current figure of $18.50 million, annually.

The ABP has created an estimated 12.3 million direct and indirect jobs across the different value chains and food belts across the country.

Despite insecurity, flooding during the wet season and the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Nigerian rice farmers have been able to cultivate enough land to harvest heaps of rice piled up as pyramids dotting the skylines of some cities in different parts of the country.

# About CBN’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP)

The CBN’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) was started in November 2015 with the goal of providing aid to farmers and influencing the value chain of various commodities in Nigeria.

The CBN has carried out interventions aimed at sustaining recovery of output growth and addressing the downside risks to other external and domestic shocks to the economy.

Interventions continued largely in manufacturing/industries, agriculture, energy/infrastructure, healthcare and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

Under the Targeted Credit Facility, the Bank has disbursed a total of N363.49 billion to 766,719 beneficiaries, comprising 638,070 households and 128, 649 small businesses. Under its Agribusiness Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme (AgSMEIS), the Bank has released N134.63 billion to 37,571 entrepreneurs.

Between September and October 2021, under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), the Bank disbursed N43.19 billion to support the cultivation of over 250,000 hectares of maize, sorghum, soya beans and rice during the 2021 dry season; and N5.88 billion to finance six (6) large-scale agricultural projects under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS).

Cumulatively the Bank has disbursed the total sum of N864 billion to 4.1 million farmers, cultivating 5.02 million hectares. The bank also disbursed the sum of N41.2 billion for the commencement of the brown revolution, a large-scale wheat program to wean us off imports by 35 per cent in the first year.