The Central Bank of Nigeria Agricultural Sector Programmes for Economic Development in Nigeria

Abstract

It was important to notice that the agricultural sector in Nigeria be considered the main stay of the economy of the country. This served as the key player of generating jobs and employment, availability of sufficient food, raw materials for productive industries, among others. This research examined the effect of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) agricultural programmes for the economic development of Nigeria. Specifically, how these programmes of: Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF), Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS), and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) had fared on economic development in Nigeria. The structure of the research design was descriptive survey adopted for the purpose of describing the emerged situational aspect of discharged ethical programmes. The population of the study was 1950 of individuals from the agricultural business with the age bracket of thirty years and above. The whole population was used and the selection of the individuals was by the researcher visiting two local governments of Jos North and Jost South in Plateau State formed into strata within five weeks.  The source of data used for this study was primary and the instrument for the data collection was a self-administered questionnaire which comprised of both open-ended and close-ended questions. The instrument was validated by five senior agricultural lecturers and researchers in the departments of agriculture by making available to each all the questionnaire for vetting. The method of data analysis was by Chi-square statistical tool employed to test the hypotheses to see deviations of the actual observations (observed frequency) from the expected that led to the acceptance or rejection of the null hypotheses. Findings revealed that the existence of these programmes of the CBN have positive significance on agricultural sector for economic development. ACGSF, CACS, and NIRSAL exert positive and statistically significant effect of the CBN agricultural sector programmes for economic development in Nigeria. In conclusion, sustained CBN agricultural programmes enhanced agricultural growth for economic development in Nigeria. Recommended were that these programmes should be sustained and improved upon so that more economic development would be witnessed in Nigeria.