The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday said its An­chor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) has crashed rice importa­tion from 1.3 million metric tons (mmt) to 2,160 metric tons (mt) in 2021 and reduced the strain on for­eign reserves through reduction of imports and creation of jobs in the country.

Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the gov­ernor of CBN, said this in Abuja at the unveiling of the FCT mega rice pyramids by President Mu­hammadu Buhari.

Emefiele said the apex bank’s effort in collaboration with small ­holder farmers has drastically reduced rice imports from Thai­land from 1.3 million metric tons of rice in 2014 to 2,160 metric tons in 2021.

He said,“We are delighted that these efforts have yielded fruitsin not just increasing the availabili­ty of rice, but also in moderating prices, reducing imports and increasing job creation in the country.

“For example, Thailand alone exported 1.3 million metrictons of rice to Nigeria in 2014. The ABP was launched in 2015 to curtail these imports, and since then, we have seen incremental reductions in rice imports from Thailand.

“By 2016, rice imports from Thailand had fallen to only 58,000 metrictons. As of the end of 2021, they only exported 2,160 metric tons to Nigeria, thereby saving us foreign exchange and helping preserve jobs in Nigeria,” he said.

Emefiele said the total aggregate of farmers in its Anchor Bor­rowers’ Programme net is now over four million with about 5.3 million hectares so far cultivated.

“The Anchor Borrowers’ Pro­gramme has catalyses the rural economy and has built a sustainable framework for financing smallholder farmers in Nigeria. The programme has developed an ecosystem among all nodes of the agricultural value chain and these linkages can be better opti­mised through synergy among all stakeholders.

“As at the end of December 2021, we have financed 4,489,786 farmers that cultivated 5,300,411 hectares across 21 commodities through 23 Participating Finan­cial Institutions in the 36 states of the federation and FCT”, Eme­fiele stated.

The governor also said the yield of small holder farmers has also improved per hectare, due to the in puts supplied, thereby mak­ing Nigeria at taint he enviable position of the larges trice producer in the continent.

“Beyond increasing our na­tional output from about 5.4 mil­lion metric tons in 2015 to over 9 million metric tons in 2021, we have also significantly improved the productivity per hectare of the smallholder farmer from about 2.4 metric tons per ha in 2015 to about 5 metric tons per ha in 2021.

“These expansions have not only made Nigeria the largest rice producer in Africa, but has also unlocked enormous private sector investment in the rice value chain as the number of integrated rice mills grew astronomically from 6 in 2015 to over 50 in 2021 with many more invidious stages of completion. Today, Nigeria’s milled rice matches the foreign rice in quality. Your Excellency, as part of this event, you will be inspecting some of the numerous Nigeria milled rice in the exhibition stands,” Emefiele said.

Governor Emefiele further revealed that efforts are under way to ensure that smallholder farmers’ yield increases as it has discovered a variety with higher yields, which is expected to com­mence in the 2022 dry season.