Banks have confirmed the issuance of 26, 830 private sector agric loans worth N3.6 billion to be given to farmers under the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF).
The issuance was approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with measures already put in place to enable access to the private sector agric loans from the Federal Government’s Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (AADS).
The apex bank recently gave a report on the activities of ACGSF from January to October 2020. The report revealed that 1, 923 loans worth N572.3 million was guaranteed for livestock farmers, 531 loans worth N135.5 million for fishery, and 5, 925 loans worth N541.6 million were guaranteed for mixed farming.
Others include 16, 976 loans worth N1.9 billion for food crops farming, 1, 942 loans worth N345.5 million for cash crops farming and 333 loans worth N69.9 million was guaranteed for other types of farming.
The ACGSF was entrenched in compliance with Decree No. 20 of 1977, and commenced operations in April, 1978.
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The Fund, handled by the CBN, provides credit facilities to farmers through banks.
The guidelines on AADS were released yesterday with the requirements to be considered for eligible agricultural commodities under the scheme.
The commodities include rice, maize, cassava, cotton, wheat, tomato, poultry, fish, sorghum, oil palm, cocoa, livestock/dairy and any other to be subsequently added by the CBN.
The apex bank in a statement announced the eligibility criteria.
The criteria reads: ‘Private sector-led AADS (P-AADS) participants must be existing or new firms engaged in agricultural production with proven capacity and bankable proposal; possess acceptable title for contiguous lands of not less than 20 hectares; have good credit record; be able to provide the required collateral for participation; and provide evidence of capacity to cultivate a focal commodity directly or engagement of farmers, including youths as in-growers or out-growers to cultivate on the land after clearing.’
Peace Omenka
