Nigerian maize farmers under the auspices of Maize Farmers Association of Nigeria, (MAAN) have commended Nigeria’s agric-focused bank, Unity Bank Plc for their role in facilitating the financing of maize production by smallholder farmers in the country through the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN).
The President of MAAN, Dr Bello Abubakar gave the commendation while delivering an address at the official unveiling of 21 maize pyramids in Kaduna .
Abubakar said Unity Bank has proved to be a trusted and reliable partner of Nigerian maize farmers in their journey to sustain sufficiency in maize production in the country.
“What we celebrate today would have been impossible without our finance partner, Unity Bank. The Bank has been a reliable partner in the journey and we shall continue to partner to greater heights,” he said.
He said through Unity Bank’s strategic partnership with the maize farmers under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme of the CBN, which focuses on commodities with significant concerns for foreign exchange, maize production output has risen to 11 million metric tons from 10.1 million metric tonnes in 2014.
As a major financial institution partner of the ABP, the Bank has facilitated the disbursement of billions of naira to no fewer than 4.52 million smallholder farmers across the various commodity value chains supported by the ABP, including an additional 120,000 maize farmers in 2021 alone.
Speaking at the event, the Managing Director of Unity Bank Plc, Mrs. Oluwatomi Somefun said the Bank remains committed to its strategic partnership with maize farmers to support their capacity to sustain the sufficiency in maize production.
