The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced it will assist farmers with a 432 billion naira ($1.1 billion) loan in the 2020 wet season of farming to boost food production in the country.
The Apex bank revealed it will back more than one million farmers to cultivate over a million hectares of farmland.
The CBN made this announcement on its Twitter handle saying: “We are committed to aggressively fund its agricultural programmes and spur farmers along select crop value chains to prevent the country from sliding into a recession.
“Over 1.1 million farmers, cultivating over one million hectares of farmland are expected to benefit from the loans that will help to produce a collective output of 8.3 million metric tons.”
Nigeria is seeking diversification away from oil which accounts for more than 90% of export revenues by encouraging investment in agriculture.
The central bank targets increasing the output of major food and cash crops including cotton, rice, tomato, cassava, cocoa, and maize.
