Wheat farmers get CBN’s N41bn funds amid impact of Russia, Ukraine war

The Executive Director of Heritage Bank, George Oko-Oboh, has said wheat farmers received N41 billion intervention funds to aid production, at a period availability of the commodity dropped in the country due to the Russia and Ukraine war.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that $4 billion trade between Africa and Russia is 90 percent of wheat, and half of the $4.5 billion trade between the continent and Ukraine is wheat.

This indicates the influence Russia and Ukraine have in Africa and Nigeria’s wheat market. And the seven months war between both European countries has disrupted production and exportation of the commodity into Nigeria and the continent, causing scarcity.

Read also: Abdulsamad Rabiu’s BUA Foods records drop in wheat, sugar sales for H1 2022

In a bid to cushion the fallout of the war, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), through Heritage Bank, has disbursed N41 billion, Oko-Oboh revealed this during the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria’s (CIBN) 15th Annual Banking and Finance Conference, tagged: “Repositioning the Financial Services Industry for an Evolving Global Context” in Abuja.

He explained that, “As a Bank, we partnered CBN and other stakeholders such as wheat farmers association of Nigeria, wheat farmers, processors and marketers’ association of Nigeria, Lake Chad Research Institute and other development partners, flour mills of Nigeria and several seed companies and others to support over 100,000 farmers in wheat production.”

Oko-Oboh further stated that, “Also, Heritage Bank further factored consideration of value addition of financial services and products flowing to and/or through value chain participants to address and alleviate constraints to growth that have distorted product financing, receivables financing, physical-asset collateralization, risk mitigation products and financial enhancements.”

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