By PROVIDENCE OBUH

A total of N3.378 billion was guaranteed to 15,405 farmers under the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) in the fourth quarter of 2011, says the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

This represents 12.9 per cent improvement over the figure guaranteed in the corresponding quarter of 2010.
This is contained in CBN’s Economic Report for fourth quarter ended 31st December, 2011published on its web site last week.

Sectoral breakdown of the loan guaranteed under the scheme within the year indicated that the food crops sub-sector received the largest share of N2.015 billion, representing 59.7 per cent for 11,328 beneficiaries, while the livestock sub-sector got N761.0 million, representing 2.5 per cent for 1,481 beneficiaries.

Also, 1,085 beneficiaries in the fisheries sub-sector obtained N316.9 million, which represents 9.4 per cent; while other sub-sectors obtained N136.8 million, amounting to 4.0 per cent, and guaranteed to 231 beneficiaries. Also, 1,232 beneficiaries in the mixed crop sub-sector received 3.6 per cent or N122.4 million, while N25.7 million representing 0.8 per cent was disbursed to 48 beneficiaries in the cash crop sub-sector.

However, 35 states benefited from the scheme during the quarter with the highest and lowest sums of N431.3 million, representing 12.8 per cent and N2.3 million, amounting to  0.07 per cent guaranteed to farmers in Kano and Ondo states, respectively.

“At end-December 2011, the total amount released by the CBN during the fourth quarter under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) since inception to the participating banks stood at N151.02 billion for 190 projects. The beneficiaries included 26 state governments.”

The CBN explained that the rise in the review period was largely due to the growth in the non-oil sector, relative to the corresponding quarter of 2010.

“Real non-oil GDP growth stood at 9.1 per cent and accounted for 85.6 per cent of total GDP in the review quarter. Real oil GDP, comprising crude petroleum and natural gas, grew by 6.5 per cent when compared with the level at the preceding quarter of 2011 and accounted for 14.4 per cent of the total GDP.”

Meanwhile, a total of federally-collected revenue during the fourth quarter of 2011 stood at N3.025 trillion, representing a decline of 9.1 per cent over the level in the preceding quarter.

“Of the gross federally-collected revenue during the review quarter, the sum of N1.404 trillion (after accounting for all deductions and transfers) was transferred to the Federation Account for distribution among the three tiers of government and the 13.0 per cent Derivation Fund,” CBN said.