Abstract: | In order to compel commercial and merchant banks to lend more to the agricultural sector, the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), prescribes annually the proportions of total bank credit that must be allocated to the agricultural sector, among others. On the basis of data obtained from various issues (1976-1983) of the CBN Annual Reports and Statement of Accounts, the author examines how adequate the prescribed allocations for the agricultural sector have been, and to what extent the commercial and merchant banks have implemented the prescribed allocations over the years. Between 1975 and 1983, neither the commercial nor the merchant banks were able to achieve the prescribed allocation of loans to the agricultural sector. Reasons for such non-optimal performance include high level inertia, sectoral interest rate structure, high cost of credit administration, difficulties encountered by smallholder farmers in satisfying bank requirements, inadequate manpower and rural spread of bank branches, and lack of enforcement of prescribed penalties against defaulting banks. Bibliogr., sum. in French. |