'No Mercy' - Farmers speaks as Tinubu orders security agencies to recover over N1trn CBN’s loan

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has backed President Bola Tinubu’s order to security agencies in the country to recover the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)'s Anchor Borrower loans to farmers.

Legit.ng reported that Tinubu asked the CBN to work with security agencies to recover the loan from defaulters on or before September 18, 2023.

Speaking on the loans yet to be recovered, the national president of AFAN, Arc Ibrahim Kabir, said non-farmers largely accessed the N2.6 billion loan, hence the difficulty in recovering the loans.

He further noted that the CBN failed to carry the association along. He said: “The Programme started on a good note but lost its focus by dealing with a few commodities without due diligence.

“The Programme should have been institutionalized at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and AFAN engaged in ascertaining the real farmers because that would ensure sustainability and some modicum of probity.

“The amount expended in the scheme is too large for agricultural production, and rather than bring about food security, it has brought uncommon food inflation."

Kabir praised President Tinubu for the effort to recover the loan but noted it would be difficult, Vanguard reports.

His words" “It is quite instructive that the Tinubu Administration has asked the CBN to recover all outstanding loans from the CBN Anchor Borrower participants within a few weeks and it clearly vindicates us considering that we have been advising the CBN to do due diligence in giving the loans by routing it through AFAN and institutionalizing it in the defunct FMARD now renamed Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

“The loan is supposed to revolve to reach more farmers but it was unfortunately given to non-farmers and opportunists in most cases." CBN had earlier reacted to reports that some farmers were using the ABP loans to marry new wives.

AFAN president further advised the government to use the BoA to do Agricultural lending by selling equity in their association to ensure that only practicing farmers get it.

He also promised that the association would establish a robust database of farmers and their various farms and commodities to enable seamless verification before giving out the loans.

He noted: “This will ensure repayment as only genuine farmers will access the loans they will pay back to enable the funds to revolve seamlessly, thereby engendering greater farmer coverage. “Show no mercy and we hope that a great lesson shall have been learned and the needful will be done going forward.