By  Babajide  Komolafe

The Central Bank of Nigeria said it has withdrawn N20.5 billion agricultural fund from 6 banks for contravening the guidelines of the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS).

The apex bank disclosed this in its April monthly report for the scheme.

The report stated, “As at April, 2011, the sum of N20.568bn has been withdrawn with respect to twenty two (22) projects by the CBN from five (5) deposit money banks.

“The withdrawals were due to contravention of the Guidelines of the Scheme as detailed below: UBA Plc Seventeen (17) projects N12.053 billion ; GTB Plc One (1) project N0.581bn; Skye Bank Plc One (1) project N2.000bn; FBN Plc One (1) project N1.6bn and UBN Plc One (1) project N2.166bn”.

The CACS was established in 2010 by the CBN in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMA&RD) to promote

commercial agricultural enterprises in Nigeria via concessionary lending to commercial farmers.

The Scheme is financed from the proceeds of the N20bn seven (7) year bond raised by the Debt Management Office (DMO).

The fund is made available to the participating bank(s) to finance commercial agricultural enterprises.

In addition, each state government could borrow up to N1.0bn for on-lending to farmers’ cooperative societies and other areas of agricultural development provided such initiatives/interventions are line with the objectives of CACS.

According to the report, “Since inception in 2009, the CBN has released N133.11bn for disbursement to 139 beneficiaries made up of 115 individuals/private promoters and 24 state governments that accessed N1.0bn each.

“ As at end of April, 2011, thirteen (13) banks, namely, Access Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank, Oceanic Bank Plc, Skye Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Union Bank of Nigeria, United Bank for Africa, Unity Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Citibank and Diamond Bank Plc are participating under the Scheme.

“In the month under review, two (2) state governments, Bayelsa and Ogun, accessed N1.0bn each under the CACS. This brings to twenty four (24) the number of participating state governments under the Scheme.

The states are Adamawa, Anambra, Bauchi, Enugu, Gombe, Kebbi, Kogi, Imo, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Sokoto, Taraba Zamfara, FCT, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Plateau, Edo, Kano, Benue, Bayelsa and Ogun.

The states governments requested the CACS funds for on-lending to farmers’ unions and co-operatives and to finance other areas of agricultural interventions within their various States.

The balance of CACS funds as at April 2011 is N66.890bn.”