ANALYSIS OF CREDIT USE BY THE BENEFICIARIES OF BANK OF AGRICULTURE IN ONITSHA AGRICULTURAL ZONE OF ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Uche Okeke

Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension,

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University,

                                           Igbariam Campus, Anambra State, Nigeria          

Email: victorokeke76@gmail.com

Abstract: The studies evaluate the credit use by the beneficiaries of Bank of Agriculture in Onitsha Agricultural Zone of Anambra State, Nigeria. it specifically examine the socio-economic characteristics of the small-scale farmers that benefited from B.O.A. credit facilities; identify other sources of credit available to the farmers and utilization of credit; determine amount requested, amount approved amount disbursed and amount repaid by the beneficiaries during the study period; compare the relationship between amount requested, approved, disbursed and repaid; identify constraints to credit provision and utilization by the bank and farmers respectively and derive policy implication base on finding. Sampling procedure will involve multistage random sampling method where stage one will be selection of five L.G.A. Out of thirteen L.G.As. Stage two will involve random selection one community from each of five selected L.G.As. They include Omor, Aguleri, Umunya, Nkpor, and Atani communities. Finally at stage three, 10 farmers will be selected by random method from each of the five selected communities making it 50 respondents. Data collected was analyzed by means of descriptive statistics tools such as means frequency distribution, percentages and paired sample T-test. The result of the study showed that 52% of the respondents collected credit from B.O.A. the loan volume requested is N97, 4 billion amount approved was N82, 2 billion repaid, amount due was N73, 8 billion and amount outstanding was N18.6 billion. The constraints are difficulty of providing acceptance guarantor, cumbersome bureaucratic problem, high interest rate and untimely loan.