CBN's Olayemi Cardoso Shifts Focus to Agricultural Credit Systems

Olayemi Cardoso, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), stated that the bank has transitioned from direct development-finance interventions to enhancing credit systems for agriculture and other productive sectors. This announcement was made during the National Close-out Conference of the Global Project for the Promotion of Agricultural Finance for Agri-based Enterprises in Rural Areas in Nigeria (GP AgFin) in Abuja.

Cardoso emphasized the importance of building resilient institutions and systems over merely providing funds for specific projects. He noted that the CBN aims to strengthen development finance institutions, including the Bank of Industry, and collaborate with state governments to improve the delivery of development finance.

The GP AgFin project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, facilitated €53.9 million in financing to smallholder farmers. The program reported significant access to agricultural finance, benefiting over 101,449 farmers and agribusinesses.