The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr Godwin Emefiele, Monday said that over $500 million was being spent annually on importation of palm oil.
Emefiele said this at a stakeholders’ meeting on the Palm Oil Value Chain held in Abuja.
The meeting was attended by the Governors of Akwa Ibom, Edo and Abia. Also, the managers of Dangote Farms, Flour mills, United Food Industries and Dufil Frima Foods Plc, among others were at the meeting.
Emefiele said that it was a sad fact that the country was still importing palm oil in spite sufficient arable land in the South-South and South-East regions of the country to farm it.
“We intend to support improved production of palm oil to meet not only the domestic needs of the market, but to also increase our exports in order to improve our forex earnings,” he said.
To this end, Emefiele said that all the state governors in South-South and South-East, Nigeria had agreed to provide at least 100,000 hectares each for large scale oil palm farming.
He said that with the help of the state governments, Nigeria could reach self-sufficiency in palm oil between 2022 and 2024 and ultimately overtake Thailand and Columbia to become the third largest producer over the next few years.
“As part of our Anchor Borrowers Program (ABP) and Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS), the CBN will work with large corporate stakeholders and small holder farmers to ensure availability of quality seeds for this year’s planting season.
“We will also ensure the availability of agro-chemicals in order to enable improved cultivation of palm oil.
“We will also work to encourage viable off taker agreements between farmers and large-scale palm producing companies.
”Loans will be granted through our ABP and CACS programs at no more than 9 per cent per annum to identified core borrowers,” he said.
Also, the Governor of Edo, Mr Godwin Obaseki, said the state was currently cultivating about 70,000 hectares of land of oil palm.
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