The Governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has warned Participating
Financial Institutions (PFIs) against charging double-digit interest
on
intervention funds guaranteed by the apex bank.
Emefiele gave the
warning in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during an interaction between the Presidential
Task Force on Agricultural Commodities & Production and young farmers at
the Owowo Model Farm Estate.
The CBN boss, who
assured the young farmers of the his bankÃs funding support through their
respective PFIs, asked them to report any bank that charges them above 9 per
cent interest rate on loans guaranteed by CBN.
He also assured them
that Development Finance officers from the apex bank were readily available to
assist them on how to access credit from the various intervention funds in
order to guarantee employment, create wealth and meet the country’s food needs.
He, therefore, urged
the young farmers to take advantage of the bank’s Youth Entrepreneurship
Development Programme (YEDP) as well as the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Development Fund (MSMEDF) to create wealth,
Also speaking, the
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, assured the
youth of the Federal Government’s support in their quest to make legitimate
earnings from agriculture.
Ogbeh, who frowned
at the spate of importation of goods that could be easily produced in the
country, expressed confidence in the ability of the youth to produce
agricultural commodities that would earn the country the much-needed foreign
exchange.
He also commended
the effort of the CBN governor, who, he noted, was very concerned about the
import bills of the country, particularly as it had to do with rice
importation.
In his remarks, the
Kebbi State Governor and Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Agricultural
Commodities and Production, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar Bagudu, commended the support
of the CBN in revamping agricultural value chains across different crop types.
He equally lauded the efforts of the Ogun State government in boosting
agriculture in the State.
The host-Governor,
Senator Ibikunle Amosun, in his remarks, thanked the presidential task force
for visiting the state; assuring that his administration would partner with the
CBN and do all within available resources to fund the agricultural sector.
In a related
development,
According to the
minister, who disclosed this in an interview with foreign media in Abuja, apart
from taking deposits, the bank will also start lending for farming projects at
an interest rate of less than 10 per cent or less than half of commercial
market rates.
ìWe are looking at
25 million farmersî as stakeholders or depositors. We are probably going to
take a major step by the end of this year.And by February or March, we will
have a structure in place for the changes we want to carry out.î
The bank, created in
1972 to provide credit and technical support to farming projects, lent at least
N41 billion to 600 businesses across Nigeria over 10 years, according to
information on its website.
ìItÃs good to invest
in the bank, but they should ensure they have proper management to improve its
performance and efficiency,” Musa Tarimbuka, the division head for agriculture
at Fidelity Bank Plc, said by phone. “They have disbursed a lot of money over
the past 40 years, and the non-performing loans are very high.”
The central bank
kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 14 percent on Nov. 24 as it seeks to
support an economy forecast by the International Monetary Fund to contract 1.7
percent this year. ItÃs also trying to curb inflation, which quickened to an
11-year high of 18.3 percent in October. Food prices rose 17.1 percent from a
year earlier, partly due to the high price of imported food after the naira
lost almost 40 percent of its value against the dollar following the
abandonment of a currency peg in June.
The government plans
to distribute 110 rice mills across the country over the next two months at a
subsidy of 40 percent, Ogbeh said. These measures will help boost production
and reduce food imports, which were worth about 1.2 trillion naira last year,
according to statistics bureau data, he said.
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