Insecurity: Extend CBN loan repayment period, farmers tell FG

Farmers have called on the Federal Government to prevail on the Central Bank of Nigeria to extend the loan repayment period for the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme following the disruption of crop production by worsening insecurity.

The CBN had in June this year told beneficiaries of the ABP, its flagship agriculture intervention scheme, to repay their loans.CBN’s Kaduna Branch Controller, Ahmed Wali, while flagging off the distribution of 27,000 tonnes rice paddy to millers, argued that the loans given to beneficiaries must be repaid to enable other farmers to benefit from the scheme, as this would help boost food production across the country.

But farmers have said repaying the loan this period was tough, as crop producers, according to them, were not earning the revenue needed to pay back the loans due to widespread insecurity in Nigeria.

They told our correspondent in separate interviews that many farmers were finding it difficult to access their farmlands, and, therefore, had very limited products to market.“The government should extend the loan repayment period for farmers. It should prevail on CBN to give farmers a longer period to repay the loans,” the National President, Maize Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Edwin Uche, said.

He added, “The government should think of devising other measures of supporting our farmers; it must not come as loan. We are talking about development finance, providing support to rural dwellers.“There must be a way of giving these farmers inputs as a form of support to enable them to move from where they are to the next level without asking them to pay back.

There must be some sort of soft landing for farmers.”Uche noted that the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on global economy had made many countries to support their industries including agriculture. He said such support had come in the form of cash grants and free inputs, among others, adding that Nigerian farmers who had yet to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic “are currently faced with the challenge of insecurity”.

He said, “The whole world witnessed COVID-19 and most countries are giving support to key industries such as agriculture. Many countries lost some of their produce and they had to support the farmers.“This support was not by giving farmers short-term loans, but by providing long-term loans and also by giving grants, because you can’t repay a loan when your business is not striving.“Loans are basically paid when a business is striving or when an economy is doing well and when the conditions are right. But right now we are struggling with a lot of economic and social factors in Nigeria and insecurity is one of them.”

According to Uche, farmers are not repaying the loans because they are mostly affected by the insecurity in the country. Borrowers groan as MfBs demand loan repaymentCBN grants businesses one-year extension on loan repayment “And if the farmers can’t get access to their produce on the field, there’s no how they can get money to repay the loans,” he added.

The National President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Kabir Ibrahim, said the Federal Government must understand the impact of insecurity on food production and how this had whittled down the capacity of farmers to repay loans.

“A large number of our farmers are affected by this. People must understand the negative impact of insecurity on our food value chain and other agricultural related activities. We are losing so much because of this,” he said.Ibrahim added, “This is why many farmers are calling for an extension of the repayment period, but we are encouraging them to pay back.”On whether the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would support farmers who could not repay the loan due to insecurity, the Director, Information, FMARD, Theodore Ogaziechi, replied in the negative.

He, however, said the ministry would perhaps look into the matter if the affected farmers had insurance cover with the Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation.He said, “Whatever is not budgeted for is absolutely difficult to take care of. This is something different entirely; they went and picked up a loan and are you expecting the agric ministry to come and repay the loans?

“They didn’t take the loans on behalf of the agric ministry. However, if they had insured with NAIC, perhaps that is when insurance under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture would have taken care of their losses.”Ogaziechi added, “But since they did not insure or for those who did not insure, it will be difficult for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to come in.“That is why NAIC is there and that is what it stands for. If the ministry starts paying every farmer who makes a loss, where will the ministry get the funding from? That is the issue please.”