(Ecofin Agency) - The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under its Anchor Borrowers Programme, has approved a N660 million ($1.9 million) loan for 3,479 farmers in Gombe State, according to Sani Chobe, Head of Development Finance, Gombe State office of CBN.

Speaking at a sensitization workshop, he explained that the loan was for farmers who applied for the funding in the first and second batches and will be distributed through the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) starting from next week.

According to Chobe, the loans were supposed to have been distributed earlier but were delayed due to a large number of farmers applying for the facilities.

President Muhammadu Buhari, on November 17, 2015, launched the CBN Anchor Borrowers' Programme to provide farm inputs in kind and cash to small farmers to boost production of agricultural commodities, increase banks’ financing to the agricultural sector, among others.

The apex bank in May, said it had disbursed N33.34 billion ($96.4 million) to 146,557 farmers across 21 states under the Programme.

Anita Fatunji