By Disun Amosun
With over a trillion naira still outstanding as recoverable loans in the Anchor’s Borrowers Agricultural Scheme ABAS since disbursement commenced between 2016 – 2024, stakeholders in Nigeria food security programe Tuesday in Abuja agreed on the need to take the scheme back to the drawing board for total overhaul, if it is to achieve its primary purpose.
Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security Rep. Chike Okafor led other stakeholders in arriving at this decision after submissions at the commencement of an Investigative Public Hearing yesterday.
The investigation centers on the alleged misuse of government interventions and agricultural funding by Departments, Agencies, Schemes and Programmes of the federal government outside the federal ministry of Agriculture.
Rep Chike Okafor said from the challenges being faced by disbursing banks of the agricultural credit scheme, it had become pertinent to change beneficiaries’ perception of the loan as a grant.
He described the multi billion naira deficits adding up to the N1. 1 trillion yet to be recovered loan from the various programmes under the scheme as requiring effective planning, monitoring and extension services to ensure that the credits given are actually used for food production purposes more or less as.
Committee member Rep Emil Inyang, after listening to the various submissions at the Investigative Hearing, submitted that the disbursement of the Anchor Borrowers Programme over the years appear more or less like a freebie from government as perceived by beneficiaries, while the disbursement agencies and participating commercial banks appear more interested in sharing the ‘cake’ and later running after defaulting beneficiaries.
For stakeholders like the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, NIRSAL, NIRSSL Microfinance Bank and the Fertilizers Producers Association of Nigeria, committee chairman Rep. Okafor said their submissions will be studied in details and they will be invited for further interaction.
For stakeholders that shunned the investigative hearing, the committee chairman warned them of the dire consequences should they continue with their style.
