GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

The study examined the total loans and total interest rates from government owned development financial institutions as determinants of attainment of food security in Nigeria. To guide the study, two specific objectives, research questions and null hypotheses, respectively, were formulated. Ex-Post Facto research design was adopted in the study. The study area was Nigeria. Annual data for this study was sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin for the period 2000-2018 as the periods of major financial and economic reforms aimed at enhancing agricultural sector financing and food security and the economic recession. Hence, food security (FOS) (dependent variable), total loans from government owned development financial institutions (TLG), and total interest rates on agricultural loans (TIRL) (independent variable) were used. Besides, total Central Bank of Nigeria interventions to agricultural sector (TLCBN) were under effective investigation. The data obtained were subjected to appropriate statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics and multiple regression in testing the hypotheses. For the inferential statistics, the test for significance was done at 0.05 alpha levels. The result of the descriptive analysis proved that the mean of the food security (FOS) was 89270804.7516, which is very high compared to the mean of the interest rates on agricultural loans, which stood at (18.7805), but lower than that of agricultural loans from government (13345118492.9579). Besides, the calculated value (0.538) had its corresponding P=value of 0.065, which was observed to be greater than 0.05. Based on the results, the study concluded that agricultural loans and interest rates from government-owned development financial institutions have no significant effect on the attainment of food security in Nigeria. One of the recommendations made was that government should increase loans from government owned development financial institutions to enable them to continue to contribute positively and significantly to the attainment of food security in Nigeria. This is because the increase in loans from government owned development financial institutions increases the level of attainment of food security in Nigeria.

KEYWORDS: Total Loans and Total Interest Rates, Government owned development financial institutions, Attainment of Food Security and Nigeria