The House of Representatives has commenced an investigation into the disbursement of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) N1.12 trillion Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) in order to determine whether or not the implementation was not abused.
The Green Chamber also intends to probe the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL); the Bank of Industry (BoI) and other agencies.
The decision to probe the apex bank and other agencies was sequel to the adoption of the Motion by Hon. Chike Okafor during plenary on Tuesday.
The lawmaker attributed the increasingly worrisome food insecurity and malnutrition in the country to alleged mismanagement of the agricultural funding interventions by the government through the agencies.
Okafor pointed out that funds meant for agricultural interventions in the past few year had been misappropriated, diverted to non-agricultural activities, thereby worsening the food insecurity in the country.
Following the adoption of the motion, the House charged the Committees on Nutrition and Food Security, Agricultural Production Services, Agricultural Colleges and Institutions, and Finance to investigate the allegd mismanagement of the ABP, designed to disburse N1.12 trillion to 4.6 million farmers engaging in rice, maize, and wheat farming through 563 anchors.
In addition, the committees were also directed to investigate the NIRSAL’s disbursement of N215 billion for agriculture and agribusiness, the BoI’s N3 billion disbursement to 22,120 smallholder farmers through the Agriculture Value Chain Financing (AVCF) Programme and the utilization of a N5 billion loan to the bank for livestock farmers.
Also, the committees’ investigations will extend to the management of the N1.6 billion National Agricultural Development Recovery Fund for the Ginger Blight Epidemic Central Taskforce (GBECT)
The committees were given one month to report back to the House on their findings.
