Key highlights
- Anchor Borrowers’ politicised has caused large defaults.
- Farmers prefer the Gross Enhancement Scheme (GES), which they say is a support grant, not a loan.
- The Central Bank of Nigeria revealed that the loan repayment ratio under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) is 53.39%.
The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), has called on the incoming administration to review and reintroduce the Gross Enhancement Scheme (GES) for farmers in Nigeria as an alternative to the Anchor Borrowers’ programme.
They said the ABP scheme has not met the desired results as the scheme was politicized, which caused high defaults.
This was disclosed by the Kaduna State Chapter Chairman of AFAN, Alhaji Nuhu Aminu, in a statement on Friday.
Support not Loan
AFAN stated that the GES programme was a support, not a loan to farmers and would be more beneficial for peasant farmers to boost food security in Nigeria.
They appealed to the President-elect to consider re-introduction of Gross Enhancement Scheme (GES), for better empowerment of farmers across the country, the report added:
- “ AFAN said the scheme was a support not a loan to farmers; therefore, its reintroduction would empower peasant farmers and enhance food security in Nigeria.
- “The anchor borrowers scheme has not met the desired results as the scheme was politicised, hence the low recovery of the loans and less enrolment of farmers.
Gross Enhancement Scheme
They added that the GES works with the Agricultural Extension Agents who link the target groups to the scheme, while the anchor borrowers tilted towards empowering agro-dealers than the farmers, citing the purpose of their meeting on Friday was to discuss issues that can benefit farmers and strengthen the association.
Also, the Executive Director, Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Prof. Muhammad Ishiyaku, restated the commitment of the institute to develop improved seed varieties that would meet the needs of farmers, adding the institute has developed improved cowpea, maize, cotton and sorghum seed varieties, which are high yielding, pest resistant and drought tolerant.
What you should know
Recall Nairametrics reported earlier that The Central Bank of Nigeria revealed that the loan repayment ratio under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) is 53.39% or a total sum of N503 billion out of a possible N942 billion.
This was disclosed in a statement by Dr. AbdulMumin Isa, Acting Director, of the Corporate Communications Department of the bank.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said the total repayment of loans under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) stood at N503 billion, representing 52.39%, adding that it released N1.079 trillion under the program, out of which N960 billion is due for repayment, citing that the statement read:
- “The ABP had supported about 4.57 million smallholder farmers who cultivated over 6.02 million hectares of 21 commodities across the country.
- “ The commodities as rice, wheat, cowpea, millet, maize, cotton, fish, soya bean, poultry, cassava, groundnut, ginger, sorghum, oil palm, cocoa, sesame, tomato, castor seed, yellow pepper, onions, and cattle/dairy.
Repayment
Isa revealed that total repayment of loans under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), stood at N503 billion, representing 52.39%, adding that repayments under the ABP have been made through cash or produced by the beneficiaries.
He also added that the outstanding due balance on loans was still under moratorium, due to the COVID-19 forbearance granted to beneficiaries of the apex bank’s interventions in March 2020 and extended to Feb. 28, 2022.
Of course everyone would prefer free money to loans. The Nigerian government just has to go to the Free Money Tree and pluck some more. SMH