Emefiele’s re-appointment, farmers commend President Buhari

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) says the reappointment of Godwin Emefiele as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor by President Muhammadu Buhari is a confirmation that the President is agriculture friendly.

Vice National President of the association, Chief Daniel Okafor, stated this in Abuja on Sunday while commending the President for Emefiele’s re-appointment.

Chief Okafor appealed to CBN governor to continue with the anchor borrowers programme and ensure that all agriculture commodities associations benefitted from the programme in his second tenure.

He also appealed to Emefiele to ensure the reduction of interest rates on agriculture loans to stand between three and five per cent.

Okafor further appealed to the CBN governor to initiate other agriculture friendly programmes and also support the Bank of Agriculture (BoA) with funds to enable farmers’ access to agriculture loans.

“We welcome this development. We commend the President for re-appointing Emefiele. It means that the President is agriculture friendly. We thank him for that.
We want the anchor borrowers programme to continue so we welcome his continuity.

“The National Assembly should do the needful because farmers’ need the man at the helm of affairs in CBN. CBN has been agriculture friendly since Emefiele’s tenure, but we want him to ensure that every commodity is accommodated in the anchor borrowers programme.

“We will like him to continue, he is a good candidate, kudos to Emefiele, but he should do more not only on anchor borrowers programme, but he should also initiate other agriculture friendly programmes.

“The CBN should also ensure that BoA is supported to get money so that farmers can get loans when necessary. He should also try to reduce loan interest rates to be between three and five per cent,’’ Okafor said.