As part of its ongoing intervention to address food insecurity, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disbursed a total of N798.09 billion to the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) since its inception in November 2015.1 The cumulative disbursement has been given to 3.9 million smallholder farmers cultivating 4.9 million hectares of land, according to the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee. In addition, the CBN disbursed N708.39 billion to 657 large-scale agricultural projects under the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS), and N134.57 billion to 38,140 beneficiaries under the Agribusiness/Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS). As the government continues to implement policies intended to improve agricultural productivity, it is important that the disbursement of these interventions is transparent. Hence, transparency mechanism should be developed and enforced within all agriculture related interventions to prevent diversion of funds as well as increase accountability. Furthermore, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are necessary to ensure that the productivity of the sector is improved over time.
