The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday rewarded three farmers in Jigawa State for their consistency in the100 percent repayment of their agric loans for three years running.
The farmers, Malam Kawu Ayuba Hago, Harusu Aliyu and Malama Fatima Aliyu were specifically recognized by the apex bank for repaying the credit facilities advanced to them under it’s Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Funds, (ACGSF).
The awardees were presented with certificates of recognition and various cash prices. Hago, who was acknowledged the best was presented with a cash price of N100,000; Harusu was rewarded with N75,000 and Malama Fatima went home with N50,000 cash.
In addition, the awardees have been selected to represent Jigawa state farmers during the national selection process, where three best farmers with the national repayment records would be announced.
Governor Badaru Abubakar, who presented the awards to the recipients, lauded the CBN for initiating the scheme, which he believed would boost agricultural production in the state.
The governor who was represented by his deputy Namadi Umar, lamented that despite the fact that agriculture is the major economic source of livelihoods of the state, most only very negligible percent of the population benefits from agricultural credit facilities, due to poor repayment attitudes of beneficiaries of such loans.
He hoped that the recognition of the farmers by the CBN would go along way in proving that, there could be responsible farmers and challenged other farmers to follow their footsteps by ensuring that they repay their loans and when due to enable other beneficiaries to benefit.
The Head of Finance Development of the Bank, Abdullahi Ahmadu, lamented that the low investment in agriculture by banks and called on the state government to prevail on them to grant credit facilities to farmers to ensure food sufficiency and security.