The apex bank, had since 2015, through its Anchor Borrower Programme, disbursed several millions of naira to farmers’ groups to boost, among other crops, rice, cocoa and maize production.
But critics of the initiative say in most cases, only political farmers benefitted from the interventions, which development, they opined, partly responsible for the current high prices of food items in the country.
Now, watchers in the system are calling on the apex bank to rework its policy on the beneficiaries in order to accommodate more real farmers in the package to boost more production.
They are also calling on the apex bank to build greater cooperation with the private sector and state governments toward boosting agriculture in the country.