President Muhammadu Buhari ; Kebbi State Governor, Abubakar Bagudu; Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and others, during the launch of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, in Kebbi State.• ‘Scheme frustrated by upfront kickbacks collected by participating banks’• Bring Bank of Agriculture into policy implementation, disbursement, AFAN demands
Despite the loss, stakeholders described the intention of the scheme as noble, but called for the restructuring of the implementation and involvement of public agencies in the agro-ecosystem to minimise the risks and increase performance level. “To quantify this based on the N1.4 trillion, a total kickback of N280 billion was enjoyed by the approving authority within the bank,” he alleged.
The President of the Yam Farmers and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Prof. Simon Irtwange, said that even though yam was mentioned among the agricultural commodities covered under the programme, efforts made by the association to access the loans did not yield results. While acknowledging that Nigeria has made some gains through the ABP, Ibrahim added: “Nobody will deny the fact that there may be some rice in the country, they have even done some pyramids even though they were questionable. What we should do is institutionalize the ABP of the CBN in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and they should reach the commodity associations through AFAN, which is the umbrella body.
He also recommended that commodities to be intervened in should be spread across the six geopolitical zones, focusing on the dominant staples in each zone. President of National Oil Palm Producers and Marketers of Nigeria, Alphonsus Inyang, noted that ABP was a well thought-out programme of the CBN that would have been able to develop agriculture leading to a very huge result in value addition, but the implementation was a problem.
He said the idea of giving out money in the morning and expecting the farmer to bring it back in the evening will not work, “what you are doing is not development financing, but cash and carry business.” He, however, expressed disappointment over the method used for the disbursement of the loans, adding that the programme fell short of expectations.
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