New Telegraph

CBN reiterates commitment to boost wheat value chain

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reiterated its determination to address the existing challenges in the country’s wheat value chain as part of efforts to shore up the country’s foreign reserves.

 

The Director, Development Finance Department at the CBN, Mr. Philip Yila Yusuf, disclosed this last Thursday, in Abuja at the Wheat Conference and stakeholder Engagement, which had as its theme, “Improving and Sustaining the Wheat Value Chain Development in Nigeria.”

 

He highlighted the enormous potential of the wheat valuechainforground-breaking impact in the agricultural sector, noting that the Bank sought to focus attention on the wheat value chain for 2021/2022 dry season planting, after sustainable progress made across the rice and maize value chain

 

 

According to him: “The CBN plans to address key problems in the value chain through financing massive production of wheat in Nigeria and seeks to facilitate sustained availability of high yield seed variety in country and improve general productivity.”

 

He disclosed that wheat was the second highest contributor to the country’s food import bill putting pressure on the country’s foreign reserve as over $2billion was spent annually on the importation of over 5million Metric Tons (MT) of wheat.

 

Furthermore, he estimated that only 1% or 63,000MT of wheat, out of the 5-6 million metric tons (MT) of wheat consumed annually, was produced locally, noting that the CBN intervention had become critical due to the high demand for wheat in Nigeria and the inability to meet that demand.

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