The Association of Northern Agricultural and Allied Commodities Practitioners (ANAACOP), in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has launched farmers programmable money agro e-Naira engagement in an effort to enhance food security in the area and the nation at large.
For the 2023 growing season, the campaign will target one million farmers in Northeastern states.
The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, announced in Yola that the e-Naira was the second digital currency to be introduced globally and the first in Africa. He was represented by Hajiya Rakiya Muhammad, the Director of Information Technology and Coordinator of the CBN’s Naira program.
He expressed his gratitude to the association and the program’s recipients and said that it would enable farmers to obtain inexpensive inputs for the significant advancement and change that technology and innovation would bring about.
According to him, the initiative is presently being tested out on 50 farmers in Adamawa, but by the end of the year, it is anticipated to reach one million farmers, followed by another four million by 2024.
“So what we are doing is providing a platform where we can have accountability, transparency and make the programme efficient to encourage people who will be able to provide finance to those who need it”, he added.
On his part, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Anchor Borrowers Program through the CBN was praised by the Chairman of ANAACOP, Mr. Sadiq Daware. According to him, the Naira initiative will benefit many farmers in the nation by reducing the need for middlemen and facilitating farmers’ access to credit and financial services in rural Northern Nigerian areas.
“Today we are happy to inform all Nigerians that ANAACOP through the CBN has gotten it right to make sure that farmers, particularly the smallholders farmers, will get loans at ease with little or no hitches leveraging the e-Naira programme,” he said. Daware assured farmers that they would not regret it at the end of the day.
Malam Mijinyawa Mahmudu, the chairman of the Ribadu Farmers Organization, addressed on behalf of the beneficiaries and praised the Federal Government’s initiatives through CBN in the agricultural sector. He also praised the organization for developing a program that directly affects small-scale farmers.
