By Bisola Adeyemo
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele said CBN is working on several fronts to fast-track the domestic production of milk, cocoa, and boost palm oil production in the country.
He also said that over N300bn had been disbursed to companies operating in the southern part of Nigeria as part of its interventions in the agricultural sector.
Emefiele said this while faulting claims in certain quarters suggesting that the bank’s targeted interventions in the sector were tilted in favour of a certain section of the country.
Emefiele made the clarification in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, while unveiling the 2020 wet season harvest aggregation and inauguration of the 2021 wet season input distribution in the South-West geopolitical zone under the CBN-RIFAN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.
Emefiele urged stakeholders in the various crop value chains to continually make consistent and positive strides towards attaining food security, saying attaining self-sufficiency in food production would not come cheap, punch reports
He, therefore, enjoined Nigerian youths to embrace agriculture, saying, “They have the talent, energy, enthusiasm, technological adoption capacity and all the right drive to revolutionise agricultural production in Nigeria.
“We must meet them halfway to ensure that we provide the enabling environment to make agriculture attractive to them. The Central Bank of Nigeria stands ready to support youths that are willing to engage in agriculture.”