CBN Releases Maize For Poultry Farmers To Stop  Artificial Scarcity, Arbitrary Price Increase

Olusola Bello

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved the release of 50,000 metric tons of maize to 12 major producers from strategic maize reserve (SMR) under the Anchor Borrowers’ Pro­gramme (ABP).

Action is aimed at stemming down the arbitrary increase in the price of maize which could cripple poultry business in the country.

This is about the third of such releases and it also intended to check the activities middlemen that could cause artificial scarcity by hoarding the product.

The CBN in a statement listed the recipients of the grains to include Pre­mier Flour Mills, Crown-Ol­am, Grand Cereals, Animal Care, Amobyn and Hybrid Feeds. Others are Obasanjo Farms, Zartech, Wacot, Say­eed Farms, Pandagri Novum and Premium Farms.

The CBN spokes­man, Osita Nwanisobi, has on account of this development ex­pressed optimism  that the action would crash the price of maize, reduce pressure on the market, and make the prod­uct directly available to feed producers, thereby reducing the price of poultry feed in the country.

As part of the bank’s fi­nancing framework, Nwan­isobi said the CBN would continue to facilitate the funding of maize farmers and processors through the Anchor Borrowers’ Pro­gramme (ABP) Commodity Association, Private/Prime Anchors, state governments, Maize Aggregation Scheme (MAS), and the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS).

Also speaking on the development, the National President of the Maize Asso­ciation of Nigeria (MAAN), Dr. Bello Abubakar, urged middlemen to desist from taking advantage of the sup­ply gap to hike the price of the grains.

He also assured that farm­ers in Nigeria would main­tain reasonable pricing of the products.

The CBN, while respond­ing to the activities of middle­men in January 2021, released 300,000 metric tons of maize, which forced the substan­tial reduction in the price of maize per metric ton.

Similarly, the bank, in a renewed move to address the rising cost of food prices in the Nigerian market, collab­orated with the Rice Farm­ers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) to distribute 27,000 metric tons of rice paddies di­rectly to millers nationwide on Thursday, June 24, 2021.