TheCable

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it disbursed over N114.09 billion to support the fertiliser industry in the last five years.

Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, said this on Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and the executive committee of the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN).

Emefiele said the funds were disbursed under various CBN’s interventions, including the real sector support facility, commercial agriculture credit scheme, national food security programme and the presidential fertiliser initiative (PFI).

He said fertiliser remained a key input to achieving food security and in the realisation of this, the apex bank placed great importance on its availability and accessibility by farmers to improve yield, productivity and ultimately, output.

Emefiele also announced that the bank is working with major companies in the industry, such as Dangote and Indorama, to ensure that they sell Urea at discounted prices to the blending plants to ensure that the prices of fertilisers are moderated in the market.

‘‘The Bank will equally work with the blending plants to ensure that the blended fertilisers are made available to end-user farmers at affordable prices,’’ a statement released by Femi Adesina, presidential spokesperson, quoted Emefiele as saying.

On CBN’s anchor borrowers’ programme, Emefiele said the apex bank had disbursed N941.26 billion to 4.2 million smallholder farmers cultivating 21 agricultural commodities on 5.4 million hectares of land across the country.

He added that for the 2021 wet season programme, the CBN disbursed N193.59 billion to 923,699 farmers cultivating seven commodities on 1.16 million hectares of land.

According to Emefiele, the CBN currently has a balance of stock of fertiliser from the last planting season under the anchor borrowers’ programme to the tune of 1.95 million bags and has committed additional 2.6 million bags for use during the 2022 programme.