The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Monday said that Federal Government’s agricultural initiatives along with policy measures by the monetary authorities had reduced the nation’s food importation bill by 60 percent in the past three years.
This is even as he disclosed that reduction in the importation of five major food items, namely rice, wheat, sugar, tomatoes and milk, saved government about $800 million during the period.
Emefiele gave these hints in his remarks at a special town hall meeting on government’s agriculture intervention organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture in conjunction with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Jigawa State.
Represented at the meeting by his Special Adviser, Mr Olatunde Akande, the governor pointed out in comparison with the $1.4 billion that was spent on the importation of the five commodities in 2013, only $678.6 million was spent by government on the same items’ importation at the end of 2017.
The apex bank governor, while comparing statistics and the impact of agriculture revolution in the country along the five major commodities of sugar, milk, rice, tomatoes and wheat between 2013 and 2017, noted that at the end of 2017, the value of the five commodities’ importation had reduced by almost 60 percent.
Emefiele spoke on the various programmes being implemented and funded by the CBN, including the paddy rice programme, to ensure food security in the country.
He explained: “What we have done is that we have looked at five key commodities – sugar, milk, rice, tomatoes and wheat. In 2013, the country spent $1.4 billion to import these commodities into the country.
“As at the end of 2017, that figure had reduced by almost 60 per cent the value of food import into Nigeria for these five commodities. At the end of 2017, we only spent $678.6 coming from $1.4 billion. In the past four years, CBN has been so supportive of the government, especially in the agricultural revolution of the government.
“The flagship, of course, is the Anchor Borrower Programme which was launched in November 17, 2015 by Mr. President, and since then, the CBN has supported over 850,000 small rural farmers. The CBN has disbursed over N160 billion under the Anchor Borrower Programme.
“Why the programme is very popular is because the target is small, rural farmers. There are lots of other programmes the CBN has done targeting large scale commercial farmers, small sale commercial farmers and other enterprises, but this is specifically for small rural farmers”, the banker added.
He explained further that the Anchor Borrower Programme was not specifically meant for rice farmers; noting, however, that 80 percent of subscribers are into rice farming.
Emefiele disclosed that the programme had so far supported 15 different commodities like cassava, fish, groundnut, cotton, maize, poultry, soy beans, oil palm, among others, adding that the apex bank also provided support to the presidential fertilizer programme thereby leading to the drop in price of fertilizer to now N5, 500 per bag.
In his remarks at the meeting, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, restated the need for Nigerians to be committed to agricultural activities for the purposes of achieving national food security.
Noting that the Federal Government is facing stiff resistance from foreign countries in its continued efforts to make Nigeria less-dependent on imported food items, the minister explained that there was conspiracy by some of the countries and their local agents to frustrate Nigeria’s drive for self-sufficiency in food production.
