By Eyo Nsima
The central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has emerged with revised new guidelines to regulate the operation of Anchor Borrowers’ Programmes’, ABP, in Nigeria.
In a document – Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) Guidelines – obtained by The Daily, www.thedaily-ng.com, CBN, stated: “The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in line with its developmental functions as enshrined in Section 31 of the CBN Act 2007, established the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) to create economic linkages between smallholder farmers (SHFs) and reputable companies (anchors) involved in the production and processing of key agricultural commodities.
“The core of the Programme is to provide loans (in kind and cash) to smallholder farmers to boost agricultural production, create jobs, reduce food import bill towards conservation of foreign reserve.
“The Programme evolved from consultations with stakeholders comprising Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, state governments, agro-processors, commodity associations, financial institutions and smallholder farmers to ramp up agricultural production, boost non-oil exports and diversify the revenue base of Nigeria.
“The revised Guidelines address current realities and developments in the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, aimed at promoting best practice in the implementation of the Programme. The Guidelines recognize the distinctiveness of smallholder farmers, the ABP transactions dynamics and the Project Management Team (PMT) in the implementation process. It also adopts measures to ensure the protection of smallholder farmers. It defines eligibility criteria and responsibilities of relevant stakeholders under the Programme such as the loan limit, interest rate, tenor; agricultural commodities eligible for financing under the Programme. It outlines the implementation windows and operating models under each window type.
“This document is therefore aimed at improving the Programme’s implementation process and enhancing stakeholders’ participation for the realization of the ABP’s objective.”
It also added: “The broad objective of the ABP is to create economic linkages between smallholder farmers and processors with a view to increasing agricultural output and ensuring food price stability.”
