The Impact of Central Bank of Nigeria's Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund on Agricultural and Economic Development of Nigeria
This paper examines and analyses the effects of Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund on agricultural and economic development of Nigeria. The findings from the study revealed that the Scheme had increased the inflow of credit to the Nigerian farmers. It expands the farmers (beneficiary) acquisition and adoption of modern farming inputs, hectare utilization, additional labor force, output, income earnings and standard of living. The scheme also enhanced food production, food security; import substitution on food locally produced, agricultural export commodities, GDP, Foreign exchange earnings and rural development of Nigeria. The conclusion derived from the findings as contained in the recommendations include: A well implemented and sustained Agricultural Credit Policy like ACGSF would enable a developing country like Nigeria to facilitate agricultural and economic development. The three tiers of government in Nigeria should give the credit scheme the necessary support, adequate attention, and publicity so that farmers particularly small and medium who constitute the majority in the rural areas can benefit from its laudable objectives. Effective monitoring mechanism must be implemented by Government to monitor the operation and performance of the scheme. This would go a long way in helping the scheme to achieve efficiency in performance and operation in future.