The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that the country needs to increase its level of bank credit to the agricultural sector by over 50% within the next 4 years to boost food production.

The implementation of this is expected to drive the allocation to the sector to 10% of the entire credit in the banking sector from the current 4%.

This disclosure was made by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday, September 15, 2020, at the 13th Annual Banking and Finance Conference, organized by the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN) in Abuja.

Emefiele said that the banking sector should focus on increasing its support for the agricultural sector, as the coronavirus pandemic has caused disruptions on global supply chains and food supply from other countries.

The CBN boss stated that some of the opportunities in the agricultural sector that banks should explore include addressing some of the existing gaps in the agriculture value chain like storage centres, transport logistics and technology platforms, that can enable rural farmers to sell their produce directly to the markets.