3.1 Million smallholder farmers benefitted from Anchor Borrowing Programme, 300 billion naira disbursed

President Muhammadu Buhari in his next-level agenda promised several millions of jobs are to be created through agriculture, including having the “Anchor Borrowers’ Programme to support input and jobs to one million farmers.”

In November 2015, President Buhari launched the Anchor Borrower’s  Programme initiative to boost agricultural production, create jobs, improve foreign exchange and reverse Nigeria’s negative balance of trade on food. This initiative aims to capture Smallholder farmers cultivating cereals, cotton, roots and livestock by financing their expansion and productivity through the Anchor Borrowing Programme.

The promise made by the president is aimed at increasing food production and job creation through the Anchor Borrowing Programme.

Mojeed reported, “While unveiling the 2020 wet season harvest aggregation and flag-off of the 2021 wet season input distribution in the South-West geo-political zone in Ekiti State the CBN Gov. Emefiele stated: A total of 3,107,890 farmers had been financed for the cultivation of 3,801,397 hectares across 21 commodities through 23 Participating Financial Institutions in the 36 States of the Federation and FCT, from the inception of the Anchor Borrowing Programme till date.”

Ifeanyi reported, “The President in Abuja while speaking virtually at the opening ceremony of the 14th Annual Banking and Finance Conference of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria remarked some of the various initiatives embarked upon to boost agriculture trade in Nigeria include the Anchor Borrowers Programme through which the Central Bank of Nigeria had made more than 300 billion Naira available to over 3.1 million smallholder farmers of 21 different commodities including Rice, Wheat, Maize, Cotton, Cassava, Poultry, Soybeans, Groundnut, Fish, cultivating over 3.8 million hectares of farmland.”

The numbers from the President and the CBN showed that a substantial number of farmers have benefitted from the Anchor Borrowing Programme over the years, but the number is not indicative of the beneficiaries from the start of the Buhari Next Level agenda.

The progress of the Anchor Borrowing Programme will continue to be tracked in line with the Promise of the President, this promise is therefore rated “In the Works.”