Alleged Corruption in CBN Anchor Borrowers Program-Farmers group write President Buhari

By Muhammed Yakubu On Jun 5, 2020

Nigerian Agricultural Commodity Associations has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently investigate alleged fraud in the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme which is threatening the success of the program.

The association in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari dated June 5^th and titled ANCHOR BORROWERS’ PROGRAMME FROM INSIDER DEALINGS AND TOTAL FAILURE and sent to Solacebase raised alarm over the possibility of creating an avenue for substandard inputs at non-competitive prices and also creating room for insider related dealings.

The farmers’ group in the letter expressed dismay noting that they as the farmers’ associations in line with the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme Guidelines were neither informed, consulted nor involved in any plan or decision to change the inputs suppliers’ selection process.

‘’This is contrary to the spirit of Article 3.5 of the CBN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme Guidelines and will pave the possibility of having substandard inputs at noncompetitive prices.

‘’ You may note that this alien and faulty selection process will lead to the delivery of wrong or poor quality inputs to farmers and their yields will certainly be negatively affected which would impair their ability to repay the loans at the end of the day, ‘’said the letter.

‘’The farmers’ associations been a major stakeholder in the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme are vehemently opposed to any arbitrary selection, appointment or choice of inputs suppliers. It is the prerogative of the farmers to decide the type of inputs they need for their use as practical users and beneficiaries and also as the loan re-payers under the facilitation of their respective associations. ‘’

The farmers in the letter urged Mr President to use your good office in calling CBN to order so as to ensure that the Anchor Borrowers Programme does not become a total failure and will affect the good image of our financial institution both locally and internationally, this institution is supposed to be with zero corruption.

FULL TEXT OF THE LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI

FCT, Abuja

Mr President,

AN URGENT NEED TO SAVE THE CBN ANCHOR BORROWERS’ PROGRAMME FROM INSIDER DEALINGS AND TOTAL FAILURE

As stakeholders in the agricultural sector, we feel mandated to draw the attention of Mr. President to the development in the CBN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), which if left unchecked will gradually but certainly cause a serious setback to the achievements recorded by the present administration towards making the small scale farmers become self reliant and providing food security for our dear nation.

This is even more urgent with the unprecedented dwindling oil price world over caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Nigeria needs to more than ever before, chart a good path in order to cover for the lost revenue from the oil sector so as to meet its financial needs. Agriculture, if done with sincerity of purpose can sustain Nigeria as is sustaining a lot of other countries.

The ABP is a laudable programme of the present administration, which was conceived with the aim of assisting small-scale farmers effectively and efficiently pursue their livelihood since they are mostly poor and unable to access technological innovations for improved yield and productivity. It is also aimed at promoting and developing agriculture while complimenting the value chain. Under the ABP, the involvement of farmers’ associations is very important especially in areas of sending the lists of their members to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for validation and approval, participating in town hall meetings (THM) wherein the associations together with inputs suppliers, off-takers, participating financial institutions and CBN meet to agree on the types and quality of inputs to be supplied to the farmers and determine the Economics of Production (EOP) of each crop and then use same to forecast the selling price. In this way, CBN arrives at the value of cash-backing per commodity while farmers’ associations ensure that farmers are not shortchanged or given substandard/inferior inputs.

Input suppliers also play an important role in the ABP implementation process because they ab initio submit their letters of interest to the Project Management Team (PMT) ahead of time, disclosing the kinds, brands, quantities and prices of the inputs they

would supply. Before a season take-off, all these details relating to the inputs suppliers would have been accepted by the farmers who are the final beneficiaries.

Lastly, the input suppliers’ attendance of the THM facilitates a proper mutual understanding between them (input suppliers on the one part) and all the other stakeholders, especially the farmers’ associations on the other part, so that the inputs are delivered in accordance with hitherto agreed on terms and conditions.

It is with great dismay to note that we as the farmers’ associations who are by Article 3.8 of the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme Guidelines members of the PMT were neither informed, consulted nor involved in any plan or decision to change the inputs suppliers’ selection process. This is contrary to the spirit of Article 3.5 of the CBN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme Guidelines and will pave the possibility of having substandard inputs at noncompetitive prices and also creating room for insider related dealings.

You may note that this alien and faulty selection process will lead to the delivery of wrong or poor quality inputs to farmers and their yields will certainly be negatively affected which would impair their ability to repay the loans at the end of the day.

The farmers’ associations have been major stakeholder in the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme are vehemently opposed to any arbitrary selection, appointment or choice of inputs suppliers. It is the prerogative of the farmers to decide the type of inputs they need for their use as practical users and beneficiaries and also as the loan re-payers under the facilitation of their respective associations.

We urge Mr. President to use your good office in calling CBN to order so as to ensure that the ABP does not become a total failure and will affect the good image of our financial institution both locally and internationally, this institution is supposed to be with zero corruption.

While we are assuring our members of our efforts to ensure that their interests are well protected by us through the ABP, we shall not hesitate to take up legal action against the Central Bank if this anomaly and arbitrariness is not addressed in earnest.

We hope our grievances will be addressed and assure Mr. President of our continuous support towards the achievement of his well meaning goals for making Nigeria the food basket of Africa.

Great Farmer, Great Nation!

No Farmer, No Nation!

SIGNED

Nigerian Agricultural Commodity Associations