Abstract
This study examined the performance of the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) which is the major credit policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria. It was established in 1977 but started operation in 1978. Time series data from 1978-2014, extracted from the 2014 bulletin of the National Bureau Statistics were used for the study. Total volume and number of loans given were used to proxy the strength of the scheme, while the contribution of agriculture to GDP was used to proxy agricultural productivity. ARDL (Bounds) test approach to cointegration was employed to investigate both long and short run dynamics of ACGS and agricultural growth. The estimated results revealed that there is a long relationship among the total volume of loans, total number of loans and agricultural productivity. The long run elasticity showed that total volume of loan will not significantly influence productivity in the long run while the total numbers of loans have a significant long run relationship with the productivity. In the short run elasticity, total volume of loans was not significant with productivity in the current year while it was significant in the past four years. The total number of loan beneficiaries had a negative but significant relationship with productivity in the past 2 and 3 years while the relationship in the past year was also negative but insignificant. However, there was a positive and significant relationship between total number of loans issued and productivity in the current year. The speed of adjustment, ECT(-1) value of -0.1991 shows that the model will return to long run equilibrium at the speed of 19.91% from short run disequilibrium. Key words: Agricultural credit, Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS), ARDL, loan volume.
Highlights
Credit has been a main focus of many research works in agricultural finance
This study examined the performance of the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) which is the major credit policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria
This study examined the performance of the major credit policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria, that is, the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme which was created in 1977, but started operation in 1978
Summary
Credit has been a main focus of many research works in agricultural finance. Credit is “all in all” for a farmer to produce (productive input) while others hold different opinions. Whichever way it is looked at, credit is an important instrument in the development of agriculture.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.