The agricultural sector in Nigeria is still dominated by peasant farmers’ characterized by low level of income and saving capacity. One way to improve their farm capital investment is by providing them with timely and targeted accessible credit to enhance their production outputs and income because of the clear knowledge of the time specific nature of some farm operations. Then, how timely is the agricultural credit in Nigeria? This study determined the time-lag of credit facility disbursed to farmers in Osun State, Nigeria. Using multi-staged sampling technique, primary data were obtained from 150 cocoa farmers with structured questionnaire. Information collected includes socioeconomic/ demographic characteristics; credit-related and farm-base information. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multiple regression and correlation model. The results showed that about 34% of the respondent had to wait between 6-12 months after application for those sourcing from informal sources while 72% sourcing from formal sources had disbursement–lag period of 6-10 months before getting the credit facility. Timeliness in credit disbursement had correlation coefficient of 0.72 and 0.77 with farm output and income respectively. The regression results also revealed disbursement lag of credit and educational status of farmer are negative but significant (p<0.05) to farm output while farming experience, presence of physical collateral and farm size are positive and significant (p<0.05). This study concludes that timeliness (short-disbursement perioud) is a determinant of output among cocoa farmers in the state for appropriate farm time-specific operations as at when due and also to prevents diversion of the credit for other purposes.