About 2.85 million farmers benefitted from the Anchor Borrowers Programme from the inception of the scheme to the end of 2020.

According to figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday, N554.63bn had been disbursed, of which N61.02bn was allocated to 359,370 dry season farmers.

The CBN also stated in its last October monthly report that under the Anchor Borrowers Programme, the sum of N1.9bn was disbursed to 2,521 farmers to cultivate 8,963 hectares of land through three participating financial institutions.

It said the funds was disbursed to farmers cultivating 3,097,834 hectares across some commodities, namely; cassava, cotton, fish, ground nut, maize, poultry, rice, soya beans, wheat, cattle, sorghum, ginger, castor seed, sesame, tomato, cocoa, yellow pepper, oil palm, cowpea and onion.

The CBN stated that it guaranteed N1.bn to 10,105 farmers under the ACGS in September 2020.

This amount represented an increase of 221.8 per cent above the level in August 2020.

A sub-sectoral analysis indicated that food crops obtained the largest share of N461m guaranteed to 4,744 beneficiaries.

Mixed crops registered N405.3m guaranteed to 4,850 beneficiaries.

Livestock, cash crops, fishery, and others received N73.9m, N33.5m, N25.8m, and N9.8m guaranteed to 238, 167, 67, and 39 beneficiaries, respectively.

Further analysis indicated that 28 states and the FCT benefited from the scheme with the highest and lowest sums of N404.2m and N0.8m guaranteed to farmers in Adamawa and Sokoto States, respectively.

Also, the bank disbursed of N26.99bn to 6,372 beneficiaries under the AGSMEIS in September 2020, bringing the cumulative disbursement from inception to end-September 2020 to N66.2bn in favour of 17,541 beneficiaries.

To facilitate the AGSMEIS, the CBN said it ratified NIRSAL Microfinance to oversee the operations of the scheme.

In September 2020, it added, N7.75bn was disbursed to 10 projects through nine PFIs under the HSIF established within the RSSF-DCRR in March 2020.

This brought the cumulative sum disbursed from inception to end-September 2020 to N47.1bn in favour of 46 beneficiaries.

The sum of N52bn had been disbursed in favour of 41 projects from inception to end-September 2020 under the TSIF.

N3bn was disbursed to Inez Global Ltd in the Power Sector in September 2020 under the PAIF.

Thus, the cumulative disbursement from inception to end-September 2020 stood at N311.2bn to 74 projects comprising 50 power projects valued at N190.4bn, and 24 airline projects valued at N120.8bn.