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Beneficiaries repay only 24% of Anchor Borrowers loan

The outgoing Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) President, Dr.  Micheal Olawale-Cole has said only 24 per cent of the loans extended to farmers under Anchor Borrowers' Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has so far been repaid.

Speaking at the 135th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the group, he said the year started with over 60 per cent of defaulters of CBN Anchor Borrowers (ABL).

Quoting sources from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said only 24 per cent of loans were repaid.

 He said: “Notwithstanding the difficulty in selecting the suitable users for the credit, agricultural credit has not considerably increased productivity. The All –Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) contended that the difficulty the CBN was having in recovering the loans was due to the cash being to non-farmers and who were not included in the Association’s database.”

 He stressed the need to deploy government intervention funds to the organised private sector (OPS) institutions that have adequate profiling of members and by implication can either guarantee the Loan or bring the erring and defaulting members to others.

 He lamented farmer’s apathy towards loan repayment and urged that such funds should be made available to those who will put it to good use. On subsidy removal he regretted that while the government and stakeholders in the industry are anticipating humongous savings from subsidy removal, the twin effect of inflation that was amplified by the removal of subsidy and exchange rate depreciation have undoubtedly increased the burden of Nigerians as well as the cost of doing business.

 He urged NNPC to be fair enough to charge a market reflective price or else supply to the domestic market would be hampered and marketers might be prompted to prefer cross- boarder’s sales to the Nigerian market. He also called for a careful review of immigration process that allows illegal miners.

The CBN in line with its developmental functions as enshrined in Section 31 of the CBN Act 2007, established the ABP to create economic linkages between smallholder farmers (SHFs) and reputable companies (anchors) involved in the production and processing of key farm products.

The programme thrust of the ABP is the provision of farm inputs in kind and cash (for farm labour) to small holder farmers to boost production of commodities, stabilize inputs supply to agro processors and address the country's negative balance of payments on food.

The programme fell flat of expectations from both government and the public.