Anchor Borrowers Scheme: Agriculture-based Incentives Creating More Jobs

Rice Farm In Kebbi State

With the zero oil agenda of the federal government, agriculture has become the focal point not only for the government and entrepreneurs, but also for investors and financial institutions.

In recent times, the banking sector credit to the agriculture sector has continued to rise year-on-year, presently standing above 4 per cent of the total credit given out by banks. The sector with its own peculiar nature has not found funding by bank as easy as the regulators continue to use moral persuasion to drive bank lending to it.

This had been one of the reasons the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had set up several intervention funds, such as the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF), Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS), Agricultural Credit Support Scheme (ACSS) and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), specifically for the sector.