Only 4 out of the 5,540 beneficiaries repaid anchor borrowers loan in Kano – MD (KNARDA)

The Chairman of Kano State Anchor Borrowers Recovery Team, who is also the Managing Director of Kano Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA), Professor Mahmud Daneji, has revealed that out of the 5,540 beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s agricultural intervention scheme in the state only four have successfully paid back.

He made this known during an interview with the Daily Trust in Kano, saying that the recovery team was presently in talks with the various farmer associations under which the farmers accessed the scheme in order to recover what was disbursed.

“It will surprise you to know that only four out of the 5,540 farmers that benefited from the programme have paid back,” the chairman revealed.

However, investigations showed that benefiting farmers of the programme in the state claimed that the programme commenced late thereby causing them to receive inputs late. 

It was also revealed that, though some farmers associations did a marvellous job in the registration of their members, many civil servants who never had anything to do with farming took advantage of the anchor borrower scheme.

According to a source close to AFAN leadership in Kano, most farmers had not started paying back because they had not used the inputs. 

According to the source, some of the farmers reserved the inputs for dry season farming and could, therefore not afford to pay for what they had not used. 

“I can authoritatively attest to you that, most beneficiaries have not started paying,” said the source.

It could be recalled that during the official flag-off of the scheme, the representative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Abdulkadir Ahmad, said N960 million was allocated to Kano farmers with each benefitting N163,710 and that 5,540 farmers were earmarked to benefit from the programme.

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