By Adamu Abuh

The 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 naira through the Anchor Borrowers Program (ABP).

Chairman of the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security, Deacon Chike Okafor who spoke at the start of the probe at the National Assembly complex in Abuja Tuesday disclosed that the monies were 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 is not a witch-hunt nor to target individuals or institutions but to uncover the truth, identify systemic failures, and ensure that public funds allocated for agricultural development are utilized transparently and effectively.

He said it is unfortunate that despite huge sums of money budgeted and disbursed over the years for agricultural programs, Nigeria continues to grapple with food scarcity, rising food prices, and malnutrition.

He posited that If these funds had been judiciously spent, the country would not be facing the current crisis where millions of Nigerians struggle to afford basic meals daily.

“The Nigerian people deserve to know how their resources are being used, and this Committee is committed to ensuring that every kobo allocated to agriculture serves its intended purpose,” he stressed.

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The Imo-born lawmaker explained that the probe extends to how Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) disbursed ₦215,066,980,274.50 so far to facilitate agriculture and agrobusinesses, how Bank of Industry disbursed ₦3 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 ₦59.4 billion in loans.

He disclosed that the committee would beam its searchlights on a N5 billion loan facility to the Bank of Agriculture for Livestock farmers across the country in 2023 as well as the inauguration of the National Agricultural Development Fund in March 2024 of a ₦1.6 billion Recovery Fund for the Ginger Blight Epidemics Central Task Force (GBECT) for the control of blight disease in Ginger.

The Committee therefore has requested from invitees the following information, covering the period under review among others, name, addresses, and contact details of anchors who disbursed funds for the Anchor Borrowers Program (ABP) to millions of farmers involved in either maize, rice or wheat farming.

It includes the list of beneficiaries according to states and geopolitical zones, terms and conditions of the loans, including recovery plan, where necessary, performance of the bank in achieving food security and nutrition, key food security activities/programmes including projects undertaken or ongoing either separately or in collaboration with other partners.