The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said five years from now, no fewer than 10 million jobs would be created in Nigeria through its intervention in agriculture value chain.
CBN Director of Corporate Communication, Mr Isaac Okoroafor, disclosed this at a sensitisation forum organised in Owerri, by the apex bank.
According to him, “this will be achieved through 10 commodity models carefully chosen by CBN management. They include cotton, cocoa, maize, dairy, palm oil, fishery, poultry, cattle, tomato and cassava”, Okoroafor said.
He stated that CBN was committed to farmers’ welfare and would give out high yielding seedlings, fingerlings and other inputs to them to boost their productivity.
He added thus: “as a way of assisting farmers, the CBN will provide anchor companies, who will buy off the products from the farmers immediately after harvest. This will create the best value chain for the farm products.”
Continuing, the Director disclosed that plans were in top gear to establish farm settlements, adding that “this will be the easiest way of building the nation’s economy”.
Okoroafor noted that “the Nigerian economy would have collapsed long ago, if not for CBN intervention” stressing that the apex bank is boosting growth of the economy through interventions in ICT, Agro-food produce, textiles, sewing, fish production, vegetables and others.
He said the essence of the seminar was to enlighten the public on how to access loans from commercial banks through cooperatives for the growth of the economy.
Also speaking, CBN Deputy Director, Consumer Protection Department, Mrs Chinyere Obilor, urged the banking public to promptly report any unethical practice by commercial banks to the CBN for immediate action.
According to the CBN Deputy Director, it would not hesitate to sanction commercial banks for any observable unethical practices, stressing that more than 13,000 complaints had been treated and over N60 billion excess charges recovered and returned to banks customers.