By Babajide Komolafe

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)  said that it withdrew N984 million  from two banks in December for contravening the guidelines of the N200 billion agricultural finance fund. The CBN said this in its December monthly report of the Fund, known as Commercial Agricultural  Credit Scheme (CACS).

“The sum of N984 million (for FCT) was withdrawn from two (2) deposit money banks in December 2011 due to contravention of the scheme’s guidelines. The details of the withdrawals are stated below:  UBA Plc N484.0 million; UBN Plc N500.0 million”, the report said.

In the month of December, only  Delta State Government accessed CACS fund while the apex bank released N14 billion to nine banks for 14 Agricultural projects.

The report stated: “During the period, Delta State Government accessed CACS fund.The number of State Governments participating in the scheme therefore stands at twenty seven (27). These State Governments accessed funds for on-lending to farmers’ unions, co-operatives and financing of other areas of agricultural interventions in their various states. Projects monitoring exercise in the states were conducted during the year.

During the period under review (December 2011), the sum of N14.00 billion was released to 9 banks with respect to 14 CACS projects bringing total releases by the CBN since inception in 2009 to N151.016 billion.

“From inception to date, sixteen (16) 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, Diamond Bank Plc, Sterling, Citibank, Wema and Mainstream Bank participated under the scheme.

“Since inception in 2009, the CBN has released the sum of N151.015 billion for disbursement to 190 beneficiaries made up of 163 private promoters and 27 State Governments that accessed N1.0 billion each (apart from FCT which accessed N16.0 million only).

“The analysis of number of projects financed under CACS by value chain showed that out of the 163 CACS private sector sponsored projects, production accounted for 44 per cent and dominated the activities funded while processing accounted for 41.1 per cent. These activities were distantly followed by marketing and storage which registered 8per cent and 6.75 per cent respectively.

“With regards to the value of funds released, processing accounted for 55.6 per cent followed by production which accounted for 29.1 per cent of the value of enterprises financed. These were followed by marketing and storage which registered 10.4 per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively.  “The balance of CACS funds as at December 2011 is N48.984 billion.”