(3 minutes read)
- The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has earmarked N41 Billion to farmers across multiple states for the expansion of wheat production projects and to meet the growing demand for wheat
- This is being disbursed by Heritage Bank Plc.
- The fund is being allocated for the expansion of the Wheat Seed Multiplication Project
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has earmarked N41 Billion to farmers across multiple states for the expansion of wheat production projects and to meet the growing demand for wheat. This is being disbursed by Heritage Bank Plc.
The fund is being allocated for the expansion of the Wheat Seed Multiplication Project. This is a part of the CBN’s Brown Revolution Initiative, an intervention program to flag-off and support the commencement of dry season wheat farming across States in Nigeria.
Governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele said that the move was part of the apex bank’s intervention to address the challenges in the wheat value chain to increase the domestic production of wheat so as to bridge the wide supply gap. The objective of the program is to extend the gains recorded in rice and maize value chains to wheat production. The program is expected to benefit over 150,000 farmers, spread across 15 states on about 180,000 hectares of land.
The CBN would save US$2 billion spent on importing five million metric tons of wheat annually through the intervention. Wheat is the third most widely consumed grain in Nigeria after maize and rice. However, Nigeria produces only one per cent (63,000 metric tons) of the 5-6 million metric tons of the commodity consumed annually in Nigeria.
