Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

How it started

When Mr Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele assumed office as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on June 3, 2014, he did not leave anyone in doubt as to the policy thrust of his administration.

Modern central banking, especially in emerging markets and developing economies has extended beyond the traditional roles of price and monetary stability mandate.

This has become necessary given the high unemployment rate, widespread poverty, with a huge number of the population excluded from access to finance.

These prompted Mr. Emefiele to roll up his sleeves, from the very first day in office. In his maiden press conference, while announcing the policy thrust of CBN under his administration, the governor declared that he would reposition the CBN to be a people-focused bank and ensure that its policies impact more positively on the people.

The Governor stated that he would strive to grow the external reserves, reduce unemployment and support efforts at diversifying the economy through the CBN intervention programmes in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors while adding that the programmes would be extended to the youth population who possess entrepreneurship skills in the creative industry. He expressed confidence that when implemented, these measures would help to insulate the economy from potential shocks in the global economy.

Specifically, Mr. Emefiele said that the CBN would boost agricultural productivity through the provision of improved seedlings, as well as, access to finance for rural farmers, across 10 different commodities namely: Rice, Maize, Cassava, Cocoa, Tomato, Cotton, Oil-palm, Poultry, Fish and Livestock/Dairy, noting that the choice of these crops was driven by the amount spent on the importation of the items into the country, and the over 10 million jobs that could be created over five years if efforts were made to expand cultivation and processing of those items in Nigeria.

Since then, he has rolled out various initiatives, programmes and policies through targeted interventions with a view to realizing the set objectives.

Mr. Emefiele’s massive interventions in the real sectors of the economy became even more germane, as the nation was hit with crude oil price crash, less than a year after his assumption of office.

From over $100.00 per barrel (pbl) at the beginning of June 2014, oil prices crashed so sharply that, as at January 23, 2915, it had fallen to a mere $45. 59 pbl. Crude oil price benchmark had been set at $65 pbl by the federal government that year’s budget, thereby leaving a wide gap between earnings and projected revenue.

With crude oil accounting for over 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings, the nation’s foreign reserves began a free-fall which prompted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to put on his thinking on how to tackle the twin challenges of low foreign exchange receipts and high import bills.

Food imports bills were considered too high for the nation to afford. The CBN put Nigeria’s monthly food import bills at about $665.4m by January 2015. Mr. Emefiele therefore moved quickly by excluding some food and non-food items from the list of imports for which foreign exchange could be provided by CBN.

It was part of ways to reduce the importation of foods that can be produced in the country that Mr. Emefiele adopted a strategy to throw CBN’s weight behind the nation’s farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector through the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) initiative.

Thus the birth of the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) for rice farmers, which was launched by President Mohammadu Buhari in Kebbi in November 2015, to commence an aggressive rice production in the country.

Fourteen states – Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Zamfara, Adamawa, Plateau, Lagos, Ogun, Cross-Rivers and Ebonyi – came together to push the programme, which the Governor of the CBN would be a game changer in the sub-sector.

At the launch, Mr. Emefiele explained that it was compelling to boost agriculture in the country as according to him, “The top four income commodities in Nigeria, which include Rice and wheat, consumes over one trillion Naira exchange annually.

“Relying heavily on food importation fuels domestic inflation, depletes foreign reserves and creates unemployment in Nigeria.”

Under the ABP, small holder farmers were entitled to loans ranging from 150,000 Naira to 250,000 Naira, to assist them in procuring necessary agricultural inputs such as seedlings, fertilisers, pesticides and other important inputs to help boost agricultural output and productivity.

It also linked rice farmers with reputable millers for off-take of every grain of paddy produced.

The programme implementation plan involves a three-pronged approach – Anchor Out-grower Support, Value Chain Training for Stakeholders and Risk Mitigation.

At the take-off stage, the CBN set aside N40 billion out of the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund to be given to farmers at a single-digit interest rate of a maximum nine per cent per annum.

The Director of Development Finance, Mr. Philip Yusuf Yila, who is Mr. Emefiele’s Chief Foot Soldier for the ABP, confirmed to Vanguard that CBN funding to rice farmers has risen to about N268 billion, in the last five years. He said that 1.473 rice farmers under the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) have benefitted from the programme. According to him, there are other rice farmers who are not members of RIFAN, who have also been funded by the apex bank.

Abuja rice Pyramids

The Abuja Rice Pyramids were a spectacle, especially for young Nigerians residing in the Federal Capital Territory and its environs, who have never seen pyramids of commodities, such as the famed groundnut pyramids of Northern Nigeria. They only read about them. However, such young people and even middle-aged men and women had the privilege of seeing how large harvests could be aggregated into such unprecedented sights. It was an assemblage of one million bags of paddy (rice yet to be milled).

For Mr. Emefiele who has driven the ABP for five years, the pyramids were symbolic. According to him, “the Rice Pyramids were born out of the conviction that it is still possible to do great things in our country.”

Celebrating farmers’ commitment, bravery

At the unveiling of the pyramids, two weeks ago, the CBN boss praised the farmers’ diligence, bravery and adaptability. According to him, “The past few years have been quite challenging as they have battled with insurgency, banditry, lock downs and other related setbacks. Indeed, we lost some farmers to insurgency attacks nationwide whilst some could not access their farmers for several months. Yet, they kept the faith. They did not give up. They persevered. They did not abandon our fight for food self-sufficiency. Today’s event, therefore, is a celebration of their doggedness and an appreciation of their commitment to food security.

“The Anchor Borrowers’ Programme has catalyzed the rural economy and has built a sustainable framework for financing small-holder farmers in Nigeria.

“The Programme has developed an ecosystem among all modes of the agricultural value chain and these linkages can be better optimized through synergy among all stakeholders. 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.”

Paddy submitted as payment of CBN loans

The governor explained that the mega pyramids represented aggregated paddy rice submitted as repayment of loans by RIFAN farmers under the 2020 dry season and 2021 wet seasons.

“Beyond the event, it also symbolizes the efforts made by our farmers to commit to loan repayment through produce submission and ultimately ensure the sustainability of the Programme.

“To further create value and transfer these gains along the value chain, we have mapped millers to off-take these paddies and we will track the release of their outputs to the market as we strive to manage inflation and grow the rice value chain in Nigeria,” Mr. Emefiele added.

Reduction of imports

The CBN boss said that the objectives of reducing rice importation and increasing job creation in the country were being achieved. He said, “For example, Thailand alone exported 1.3 million metric tons of rice to Nigeria in 2014. The ABP was launched in 2015 to curtail these imports, and since then, we have seen incremental reductions in rice imports from Thailand. 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.”

Higher Yields, quality

Beyond increasing the national output from about 5.4 million metric tons in 2015 to over 9 million metric tons in 2021, the nation has also significantly improved the productivity per hectare of the small-holder farmer from about 2.4 metric tons per ha in 2015 to about 5 metric tons per ha in 2021.

These expansions have made Nigeria the largest rice producer in Africa with more private sector investors coming into the rice value chain as the number of Integrated Rice Mills grew astronomically from 6 in 2015 to over 50 in 2021 with many more in various stages of completion. With state-of-the-art mills, much Nigeria’s milled rice matches the foreign rice in quality.

More pyramids to be unveiled in S/S, S/E

Mr. Emefiele disclosed that the unveiling of more rice pyramids in the South-South and South-East zones have been lined up for the year.

The Brown Revolution (Wheat)

Taking a cue from the success stories in the rice value chain, the CBN commenced the “Brown Revolution” last year which Mr. Emefiele described as “our mantra for the transformation of the wheat value chain in Nigeria. Wheat is the 3rd mostly consumed grain in Nigeria after maize and rice.”

It is estimated that the nation produces about 1 percent (63,000 mt) of the 5-6 million mt of wheat consumed annually in Nigeria.

According to the CBN Governor, “This enormous demand/supply gap is bridged with over $2 billion annual importation of wheat. As a result, wheat accounts for the second highest food import bill in Nigeria, thereby putting pressure on the nation’s foreign exchange reserves.

“We have concluded the first major wet season wheat farming in Plateau State and planted over 100,000 hectares of wheat across 15 States in the 2021 dry season. This strategic intervention will herald progressive reduction in our wheat import bills over the coming years.”