The Albino Foundation Public Notice
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele has urged rice millers to embrace the bank’s backward integration initiative aimed at conserving foreign exchange reserves, revamping local production capacity and creating employment.
Speaking during the inauguration of the Garewa Rice Mill in Kano, Kano State, yesterday, Emefiele stressed the need for rice millers to be involved in paddy production to guarantee the product’s sustainable supply to their mills and complement the supply from the smallholder farmers through the apex bank’s partnership with the Rice Farmers Association (RIFAN) and prime anchors.
He noted that the number of rice mills had grown from less than 10, with a combined capacity of less than 350,000 metric tons, prior to the launch of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) in 2015, to over 60 integrated rice mills, with a combined capacity of about three million metric tons as at last month, with about 10 more mills scheduled to be inaugurated later this year.
The governor said the increasing number of rice mills, which was complemented by hundreds of small-scale mills, attested to the conducive environment the CBN had been able to create in the rice value chain through its initiatives and stakeholders’ collaboration.
Stressing the need to match the increasing milling capacity of rice nationwide with increased paddy production,Emefiele charged millers to take advantage of the ABP and the Private-Sector Led Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (P-AADS) of the bank, which provide long-term financing option to millers to finance commercial farms, land development, irrigation facilities and other agricultural infrastructure that will enhance their respective production plans.
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