Raphael Ede, Enugu

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has advised farmers in Enugu State to take advantage of its Interest Drawback Programme (IDP) on Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund’s (ACGSF) to improve their agricultural financing.
  Speaking during a recent sensitisation workshop for the participating financial institutions in the state which include commercial and micro-finance banks, the acting Head, Development Finance Office, CBN Enugu, Mr. Henry Longtei, said that under the ACGSF loan scheme, farmers borrowing gets back 40 per cent of the interest paid on the loan.
  Longtei said that the IDP was established to provide support to borrowers for interest rate paid on loans under the ACGSF, while noting that sensitisation was to update participating financial institutions on the new processes and new forms of ACGSF.
He commended the participating financial institutions for their strict adherence to the terms of ACGSF, which he said had reduced default in the scheme.
“For long because of our monetary processes and the joint monitoring we do along with them, it has so much reduced default rate in the scheme and that is because we ensured that only the real farmer access the ACGSF.
  “The benefit attach to ACGSF is an interest rebate – that means that you are being paid back a portion of the interest that the commercial bank or the micro-finance bank could have charged you on an agricultural loan for up to 40 per cent. Forty per cent of the interest will be paid back to you directly by the CBN of a loan that you took or collected from a micro-finance bank or a commercial bank,” he explained.