The Central Bank of Nigeria has claimed a total of 4,478,381 Smallholder farmers have benefited the sum of N948 billion from its Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) across the 36 States and the FCT.

Mr. Osita Nwanisobi who is the Director, Corporate Communications Department of the Bank stated this while speaking at the ongoing Enugu International Trade Fair.

According to Osita, the farmers who are direct beneficiaries of the programme have so far cultivated 5.2 million hectares of land. He stressed that the programme has so far created over 12.5 million direct jobs and indirect jobs respectively.

Of the total number of beneficiaries mentioned above, the director for corporate communication said a total of 648,052 of the beneficiaries are households while 130,000 of the beneficiaries are Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Osita said the Central Bank’s developmental role as captured in the CBN Act 2007 (as amended) rolled out policies and financial programmes to about 40 interventions prior to his speech, the president, Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA), Mr. Jasper Nduagwuike extolled the Central Bank for it’s numerous interventions packages.