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The Acting Managing Director, Bank of Agriculture (BoA), Mr Alwan Hassan, says N77.18 billion Anchor Borrower Pro- gramme (ABP) loan is yet to be repaid as at October.
Hassan disclosed this Wednesday in Abuja at a public hear- ing by the House Committee on Agricultural Production and Services on the usage of funds disbursed to anchor companies under the ABP.
He said that out of the total sum of N91.87 billion released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the programme, a total of N14.68 billion was repaid.
According to him, since the commencement of the ABP in November 2015, a sum of N91.87billion has been disbursed as at Oct. 31 for all the models of the programme. He said that the ABP had also created 424, 820 direct jobs and 2.12million indirect jobs. Hassan lamented that implementation of the scheme was fraught with serious challenges to the bank. He said that part of the challenge was that the commodity associations were allowed to migrate freely without settling prior indebtedness. He, however, said that BoA raised obser- vation that such action would affect recovery commitment. The acting MD complained that insurance was also not properly managed, adding that, in some cases, premium was either paid late or unpaid out right. He said that cases of inse- curity such as attacks by criminal herdsmen, armed robbery, and kidnapping had made it dif cult for farmers to concen- trate on their farms.
