The Central Bank of Nigeria has launched the Private Sector-led Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (P-ADDS) to complement the Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (ADDS) engaging 370,000 youths in agricultural production.
This is in line with its developmental mandate to continue to develop and introduce development finance programmes and schemes to expand access to finance to critical sectors and segments of the economy to achieve food self-sufficiency as well as diversification.
The CBN also revealed that in its pursuit of this mandate, the population of the country has continued to rise at nearly 3% annually. Recent studies indicated that the country’s population pyramid is bulging around the youth segment, with an estimated 75 percent of the population identified to be aged below 35 years. A large segment of this population would have eked out a living if adequate opportunities were harnessed in agriculture given its potential of employing over 70% of the nation’s workforce.
While addressing the rising food security challenge due to unproportionate production compared to population growth; value addition to agriculture; including the provision of more land for cultivation has remained stagnant over the years.
To address the food security and youth unemployment challenges across the country, the CBN introduced the Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (AADS) to engage 370,000 youth in agricultural production, in collaboration with state governments. The Private Sector-Led Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (P-AADS) was also developed to complement AADS by exploring private sector partnerships to facilitate more rapid land clearing for the production of key agricultural commodities.
Objectives of the Scheme
The broad objective of the P-AADS is to facilitate increased private sector agricultural production of staple foods and industrial raw materials, as well as support food security, job creation, and economic diversification.
The specific objectives are to:
i. Fast track land clearing for primary production of agricultural commodities;
ii. Promote food security through the provision of large contiguous land for
agricultural production across all states;
iii. Collaborate with agro-processors engaged in backward integration by providing
financing for extended land clearing in proximal locations for cultivating
commodities for the supply of industrial raw materials;
iv. Support other capable stakeholders interested in unlocking land for agriculture
through appropriate financing; and
v. Engender job creation for individual farmers that will cultivate on the cleared
land.
Eligible Participants
i. Agro-processors of agricultural commodities engaged in backward integration;
ii. Prime anchors and commodity associations participating under the Anchor
Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) with evidence of contiguous land readily available
for clearing and cultivation of agricultural commodities; and
iii. Other companies and individuals with evidence of ownership of contiguous land
readily available for clearing and cultivation of agricultural commodities.
Click here for more information on the initiative.
