The Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday said a total of N199.25bn out of the N200bn Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme had been disbursed to finance 270 projects in 30 states.
The Governor, CBN, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, gave the figure in Abuja while delivering an address at a one-day forum for stakeholders in the tomato industry.
The workshop with theme: ‘Partnering to build a competitive tomato industry in Nigeria,’ was organised to help stakeholders in the industry to brainstorm on how to unlock the potential of the tomato value chain
Represented by the Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, CBN, Dr. Sarah Alade, Sanusi wondered why the country, which is the 14th largest producer of tomatoes, remained one of the highest importers of tomato paste in the world.
He said, “Globally, Nigeria is the 14th largest producer of tomatoes and the second only to Egypt in Africa at 1.51 million metric tonnes, valued at N87bn, with a cultivated area of 264,430 hectares. It is on record that Nigeria imports 65,809 tonnes of processed tomato paste valued at N11.7bn annually.
“The reason for the huge volume of imports is largely due to dysfunctional agricultural value chain system in Nigeria, resulting in about 50 per cent of the tomato produced in the country being lost to lack of preservation and poor marketing, distribution and access to markets.”