By: ThinkBusiness Africa
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, has inaugurated the new Board of the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF), challenging the leadership to adopt a radically modern and technology-driven approach to unlock credit for Nigerian farmers. CBN said in a statement on Wednesday.
The inauguration underscored the CBN’s renewed commitment to leveraging agriculture as a key driver of economic diversification, poverty reduction, and national food security.
Nigeria’s agricultural sector is filled with small holder farmers who constitute 80% of all farmers and produce 90% of the country’s food. Yet these farmers have zero or very little access to formal credit, often due to technical, and long paperwork barriers.
Governor Cardoso strongly affirmed the enduring strategic role of the ACGSF, established in 1977, in de-risking agricultural lending.
However, he stressed the urgent need for the 47-year-old scheme to evolve into a more innovative, inclusive, and technology-driven instrument to address modern agricultural challenges, including climate risks, complex value chains, and low bank lending.
“The strengthened scheme, whose share capital increased from ₦3 billion to a substantial ₦50 billion under the amended 2019 Act, must shift from simply guaranteeing loans to actively helping farmers, cooperatives and agribusinesses secure affordable credit,” the Governor stated.
Agriculture contributes more than one-fifth (over 20%) of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The sector showed strong growth potential posting a real GDP growth rate of 3.79% in third quarter 2025.
Meanwhile, less than 5% of commercial bank’s total lending goes to the agricultural sector.
In September the CBN slashed its key lending rate by 50 basis point (27% from 27.5%), this move the apex bank aims to support borrowing across key sectors including agriculture.
Following the inauguration of the ACGSF board, the apex bank aims to use technological approaches like collaboration with fintech, and cooperative to boost credit among rural small-holder farmers who are left out of formal credit.
With repayment rates of 90–98%, the Scheme continues to show strong impact. The new Board, led by Dr. Olusegun Oshin, is set to enhance collaboration, monitoring and real-time tracking to boost productivity and rural livelihoods.
