By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Jaiz bank, foremost Islamic bank in Nigeria, has stated that the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) is the Central bank of Nigeria’s intervention for financing product that enables customers to expand their business within any given component of the agriculture value chain.
This statement was disclosed on Jaiz bank twitter handle on Thursday.
As part of its developmental role, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) established the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme, hereinafter referred to as CACS, for promoting commercial agricultural enterprises in Nigeria, which is a sub–component of the Federal Government of Nigeria Commercial Agriculture Development Programme (CADP).
This Fund will complement other special initiatives of the Central Bank of Nigeria in providing concessionary funding for agriculture such as the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) which is mostly for small scale farmers, Interest Draw-back scheme, Agricultural Credit Support Scheme, etc.
The scheme shall be financed from the proceeds of the N200billion three (3) year bond raised by the Debt Management Office (DMO). The fund shall be made available to the participating bank(s) to finance commercial agricultural enterprises. In addition, each State
Among numerous objectives of the scheme include, to fast track development of the agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy by providing credit facilities to commercial agricultural enterprises at a single digit interest rate and enhancing national food security by increasing food supply and effecting lower agricultural produce and product prices, thereby promoting low food inflation.
Key Agricultural commodities to be covered under the Scheme are:
(i) PRODUCTION:
Cash Crops: Cotton, Oil Palm, Fruit Trees. Rubber, Sugar Cane, Jatropha Carcus and Cocoa.
Food Crops: Rice, Wheat, Cassava, Maize/Soya, Beans/Millet, Tomatoes and Vegetables Poultry: Broilers and Eggs Production
Livestock: Meat, Dairy and Piggery
Aquaculture: Fingerlings and Catfish
(ii) PROCESSING: Feed mills Development, Threshing, Pulverisation and Other forms of transmutation for value addition.
(iii) STORAGE: Commodities, Agro-Chemicals and Warehousing
(iv) FARM INPUT SUPPLIES: Fertilizers, Seeds/Seedlings, Breeder Stock, Feeds, Farm equipment & Machineries.
(v) MARKETING: Agricultural commodities under the focal investment areas
Interested applicants can visit CBN website for application guidelines.