The Central Bank of Nigeria has provided credit facilities to more than 200,000 maize farmers to bolster domestic maize production and reduce the  price of maize through increased production.

National President, Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN), Alhaji Bello Abubakar on Monday confirmed that the CBN had released credit facilities to more than 200,000 farmers who were expected to produce more than 25 million metric tonnes of maize in the 2020-2021 planting season.

The funds were provided under the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the CBN.

Abubakar said the credit facilities were being distributed to members along the maize value chain nationwide.

He expressed confidence that the support of the CBN would boost production and, ultimately, ensure availability as well as stability in the price of the commodity.

According to him, despite  the cases of insecurity in some parts of the country, farmers are committed to meeting the objective of food security.

Abubakar charged middlemen “not to take advantage of the supply gap to hike the price of the grains”.

He assured the government, that “farmers would maintain reasonable price” and urged the Federal Government to put in place “mechanism to protect farmers from market triggered shocks”.