Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele   disclosed  in Abuja  during a meeting with newsmen , that between November and December 2021 alone, the Bank disbursed N75.99 billion to support the cultivation of over 383,000 hectares of maize, rice and wheat during the 2022 dry season.

Giving further insight, the CBN Governor pointed out that “All excess output aggregated from the financed farmers will be released to the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) to help moderate the prices of food in the market”.

He said the figures were thrown up when the Monetary Policy Committee reviewed the performance of the Bank’s intervention programme aimed at stimulating productivity in manufacturing industries, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, healthcare and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Also, as part of its effort to support the resilience of the healthcare sector, the Bank also disbursed N498.00 million to two healthcare projects under the Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility (HSIF), bringing the cumulative disbursements to N108.85 billion for 118 projects, comprising of 31 pharmaceuticals, 82 hospital and four other services.

To also  support households and businesses affected by Covid-19, the Bank disbursed N20.29 billion to 40,521 beneficiaries, comprising 35,340 households and 5,181 small businesses under the Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) within the period.

The cumulative disbursements under the TCF stood at N369.78 billion to 777,666 beneficiaries, comprising 648,052 households and 129,614 small businesses.

Similarly, to further promote entrepreneurship development among Nigerian youths, the Bank disbursed N293 million to 59 beneficiaries under the recently introduced Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES).