Nigeria has grown its rice production from 1.5 metric tonnes per hectare to around eight metric tonnes per hectare in the space of four years.
This, according to the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), Godwin Emefiele was due to the impact of the Anchor Borrowers Programme in the agricultural sector.
Speaking at Business and Investment forum organised by the Nigerian embassy in The Netherlands, Emefiele noted that, with the Anchor Borrowers Programme, Nigeria had been transformed from the largest importer of rice to self sustaining.
“When the Buhari administration came on board, Nigeria was the largest rice importing nation in the world and just within four years of us starting the programme in 2015, Nigeria today is producing rice to sustain itself. We are not importing rice, we blocked avenues through which rice is imported into the country and gave support to our smallholder farmers.