A House of Representatives investigative team inspects how the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and governmental departments through Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) have spent about N1.12 trillion.
Chairman Chike Okafor of the Nutrition and Food Security House Committee revealed during the National Assembly hearings at Abuja’s complex that the funds were provided to 4.67 million farmers throughout 563 anchor operators who focused on maize wheat and rice cultivation from 2017 to 2024 during former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.
Chairman Okafor stated that the investigation did not pursue specific persons or organizations yet he wanted to uncover truth through systemic failure analysis to validate the responsible use of public agricultural development funds.
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He stressed how regrettable the situation is because Nigeria’s immense agricultural budgetary allocations and payments since past years have failed to resolve the country’s food shortages and escalating food prices and nutrition problems.
According to him the country would not experience its present food insecurity if spending authorities directed funds appropriately.
Through the investigation the lawmaker sought information on N15,066,980,274.50 payments by Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) for agriculture and agro-businesses as well as N3 billion distributed by Bank of Industry among 22,120 smallholder farmers through the Agriculture Value Chain Financing (AVCF) along with N59.4 billion loans delivered for 49 agro and food processing businesses.
