President Bola Tinubu has ordered top security agencies in the country to take all necessary measures to recover the huge amount of government money from the defaulters of the Anchor Borrowers’ Loan on or before September 18, 2023.
Tinubu wants the loans recovered in order to make the cash available to genuine farmers who seek safe loans for more food production.
The Anchor Borrowers’ Loan Scheme floated by the Central Bank of Nigeria made cash available to boost agricultural production in Nigeria has run into a glitch due to the inability of beneficiaries to repay the loan on maturity.
This is holding up government funds and denying others from tapping into the scheme, News Central has discovered.
Out of the N1.1 trillion disbursed by the CBN to the beneficiaries of the ABS since its inception, only a little above N546 billion has been repaid while a whopping balance of N577 billion remains unaccounted for.
The huge amount being held up by the borrowers includes commercial banks and microfinance banks, state governments, farmers’ group, individuals and corporate bodies, is said to have upset the Presidency, which feels that the aim of the programme might be derailed, if the huge cash is not immediately retrieved from the debtors.
President Bola Tinubu, who had been briefed severally on the situation, is worried that such sums of money, which could give succour to other farmers, is being withheld by some of the beneficiaries.
It was learnt that a subsidiary of the CBN and a commercial bank in the country, had diverted N255 million meant for farmers and others in dire need of loans to improve their production.
Also, the apex bank’s subsidiary and a commercial bank in the country which acted as intermediaries between the borrowers and the CBN, have purportedly fraudulently diverted the sum of N255 million, which they secured from the lender but refused to disburse to the borrowers or return to the CBN.
Some managers had already been interrogated on the huge loans saga and that many of them had admitted to securing the said loans and the alleged breaches regarding the repayment.
The ambitious Anchor Borrowers’ Programme targeted promotion of agricultural production, include Maize Farmers’ Association, Soya beans and Cotton Farmers’ Association.
Findings further showed that while the Maize Producers Association took a loan of N39 billion from the CBN under the ABP, it has been able to refund a total of N23 billion while Cotton farmers took a loan of N14 billion and has been able to refund N5 billion so far.
