The devastation caused by floods on farmlands across the country currently poses a threat to the various agricultural schemes of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) worth N1.9 trillion.
Farmers have also expressed fears regarding the repayment of about N1.4 trillion loans obtained from CBN under the schemes being implemented by the bank, according to The Punch.
The minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, Sadiya Farouq, on Tuesday, October 25, that over 569,000 hectares of farmlands had been destroyed by floods.
“176,852 hectares of farmlands were partially damaged, while 392,399 hectares of farmlands have been totally damaged,” Farouq said.
The president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kabir Ibrahim, while speaking on Thursday, October 27, said that the floods had thrown thousands of farmers into confusion, stressing that the loans from CBN would definitely take the hit in terms of repayments.
Ibrahim stated that, “This year, because of the flooding of farmlands, so many farmers have lost the entire plantation that they cultivated.
“Jigawa state is a typical example. Most of the rice farms there were completely lost and this is the situation in many other states.
“Would it be easy for these farmers to repay the loans? However, the loans to farmers should not just be for one season, there should be moratorium.
“For the loans to be effective, it should be within two harvest seasons, not just one, because it would not be that simple to pay back,” he added.
Data from the apex bank showed that over N1 trillion had been disbursed as loans to farmers under the bank’s anchor Borrowers programme, while officials of the institution stated that about N400 billion had so far been repaid.
This leaves an outstanding payment of about N600 billion by farmers who benefitted from the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).
Also, under the bank’s commercial agriculture credit scheme (CACS), a total disbursement of about N744.32 billion had been made for 678 projects in agro-production and agro-processing.
The Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF), which is managed by CBN, in July 2022, guaranteed 1.23 million loans given to farmers across the country.
The monetary value of the loans was estimated at N130.903 billion.
The chairman of ACGSF, Stephen Okon, said that, “A total of 1,232,326 loans valued at N130.903 billion were guaranteed from inception to May 2022 out of which 973,646 beneficiaries had repaid a total of N98.91bn billion.”
This implies that about N32 billion had not been repaid by about 258,680 farmers under the ACGSF as at May 2022.
A combination of the value of the various schemes indicated that CBN had invested about N1.874 trillion on the ABP, ACGSF and CACS.
Also, the summation of the outstanding repayments for ABP, ACGSF and the total disbursements for CACS indicated that about N1.4 trillion was still being owed by farmers across the country.
The director of development finance of CBN, Yusuf Yila, on September 28, 2022, confirmed that N1 trillion had been disbursed under the ABP, while N400 billion had been recovered.
Yila warned debtors to repay as the bank had collaborated with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to set up a desk with a view to recovering the loans.
Meanwhile, an official at the bank, in Thursday, said that the CBN was aware of the impact of floods and the devastation it caused on farmlands, noting that the bank was optimistic that beneficiaries of loans would repay.
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