A total of 394 farmers under the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in Kano State benefited from the N1 billion Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS) in 2012.
The Acting state Secretary of AFAN, Alhaji Garba Bichi, disclosed this in Kano on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said the amount was disbursed to the beneficiaries between February and April last year in order to boost food production in the state.
He said some categories of farmers that received the loan include livestock, dairy, poultry, rice, maize and agro-processing farmers, among others.
”About 5, 000 registered farmers applied for the loan, but unfortunately, only 394 were lucky to have received the loan.
”The beneficiaries received between N500, 000 and N10 million depending on the type of farm and size the farmer has,” he said.
He, however, advised the beneficiaries of the loan to make the best use of the facility as they were expected to have commenced repayment by now in order to enable others to benefit.
”Iam calling on the farmers who benefited from the CACS’ loan to start repaying because it is only when they pay that others can benefit,” he said.
Bichi commended the state government for being the guarantor of the farmers which had facilitated the release and disbursement of the loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).(NAN)