Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, says the apex bank has so far disbursed N1 trillion to farmers to boost crop production in the country.

Mr Emefiele made the disclosure at the unveiling of the FCT mega rice pyramids, an initiative of RIFAN, CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme (APB) in Abuja on Tuesday.

This is coming as many Nigerians suffer hunger and malnutrition amid heavy hike in food prices as evidenced in a market survey conducted by The Gazette in the last quarter of 2021.

In the presence of president Buhari, his chief of staff Ibrahim Gambari, Aliko Dangote, and some governors, Mr Emefiele announced that the CBN empowered over four million farmers. 

“As at the end of December 2021, we have financed 4,489,786 farmers that cultivated 5,300,411 hectares across 21 commodities through 23 Participating Financial Institutions in the 36 States of the Federation and FCT.

“We are delighted that these efforts have yielded fruits in not just increasing the availability of rice, but also in moderating prices, reducing imports and increasing job creation in the country.” Mr Emefiele said.

He noted that there has been a significant decrease in the importation of foreign rice from Thailand.

“For example, Thailand alone exported 1.3 million metric tons of rice to Nigeria in 2014. By 2016, rice imports from Thailand had fallen to only 58,000 metric tons. As of the end of 2021, they only exported 2,160 metric tons to Nigeria, thereby saving us foreign exchange and helping preserve jobs in Nigeria.”

Mr Emefiele’s effort to boost the country’s food production has failed to yield results. In September 2021, the house of representatives set up a special committee to investigate the rising cost in food prices.

The committee was set up after federal lawmaker Ibrahim Isiaka moved a motion saying “prices of food items, commodities, goods and services have skyrocketed by as much as 100 per cent in many parts of Nigeria in the last one year.”