The Central Bank of Nigeria has imposed a fine of N47.708m on Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc for contravening the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme for the month of March.

The CBN in a report on Friday said, “In the period under review, the sum of N470m was withdrawn from Stanbic IBTC Bank in respect of Albookys Nigeria Limited due to contravention of the CACS Guidelines. The bank was sanctioned with a penalty charge of N47.708m.”

The CACS is established by the CBN and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources as a strategic response to the lingering food and energy crisis, worsened by global financial meltdown. The fund is sourced from a N200bn Federal Government of Nigeria Bond structured into three, five and 10-year tenor, with the same status as any other Federal Government bonds, and it is secured against the assets of the Federal Government.

Based on clearly defined qualifying criteria banks are selected as participating banks to disburse the fund to eligible medium and large scale integrated and non integrated agricultural projects.

Meanwhile, the CBN said it had released the sum of N175.525bn for disbursement to 222 beneficiaries made up of 193 private promoters and 29 state governments that accessed the sum of N33bn.

The report said, “During the period, Abia State Government accessed N1bn while Rivers and Bauchi State Governments accessed additional N3bn and N1bn respectively from the CACS fund. The number of State Governments participating in the Scheme therefore stands at 29. These state governments accessed funds for on-lending to farmers’ unions, co-operatives and financing of other areas of agricultural interventions in their various states.

“From inception to date, 18 banks, namely, Access Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, EcoBank Plc, Skye Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, Unity Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, Citibank Limited, Wema Bank Plc, Mainstream Bank Limited, Enterprise Bank Limited and First City Monument Bank Plc participated under the scheme.”

The report showed that the analysis of number of projects financed under CACS by value chain showed that out of the 195 CACS private sector sponsored projects, production accounted for 47 per cent and dominated the activities funded while processing accounted for 39 per cent.

“These activities were distantly followed by marketing, storage and input supplies, which registered eight per cent, 5.9 per cent and one per cent respectively. With regards to the value of funds released, processing accounted for 52 per cent followed by production which accounted for 45.6 per cent of the value of enterprises financed. These were followed by marketing, storage and input supplies which registered 15.31 per cent, 5.9 per cent and one per cent,” it added.

Source: Ademola Alawiye/Punch