Deborah Akinyosoye
House of Representatives is probing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) on the disbursement of about N1.12 trillion through the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).
Chairman of the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security, Chike Okafor, who spoke at the start of the probe at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, yesterday, disclosed that the money was disbursed to 4.67 million farmers involved in either maize, rice, and wheat farming through 563 anchors in the country between 2017 to 2024 when former President Muhammadu Buhari held away.
Okafor remarked that the hearing was not a witch-hunt targeting individuals or institutions, but to uncover the truth, identify systemic failures and ensure that public funds allocated for agricultural development were utilised transparently and effectively.
He said it was unfortunate that despite huge sums of money budgeted and disbursed over the years for agricultural programmes, Nigeria had grappled with food scarcity, rising food prices and malnutrition.
He argued that if the funds had been judiciously spent, the country would not face the current crisis, where millions of Nigerians struggle to afford basic meals daily.
The Imo-born lawmaker explained that the probe would extend to how Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) disbursed N215,066,980,274.50 so far to facilitate agriculture and agro-businesses, how Bank of Industry disbursed N3 billion to 22,120 smallholder farmers through the Agriculture Value Chain Financing (AVCF) programme, in addition to funding 49 agro and food processing businesses with N59.4 billion in loans.