Open Letter To Gov Bello On FG/CBN Anchor Borrower Programme

BY SALISU O. UMAR 

Last week came a report that the Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello has instructed that a minimum of 100,000 farmers be registered under the FGN /CBN anchor borrower programme.

For the purpose of explanation, the anchor borrower programme is FGN /CBN project designed to help farmers access loan at 9% interest rate to plant choice crops by participating states. The produce are bought by selected offtakers after harvest whereby the loan is repaid and farmers get their profit.

Why then is it difficult to get more than 600 farmers in kogi state for this ‘laudable programme’?

This is the question I had expected our governor to ask rather than giving instructions that more farmers be registered. Unfortunately, the recently held Agric stakeholders summit in lokoja where we thought this issue will be addressed ended up not addressing any issue in Agric as farmers were only meant to come and watch the event while state officials and their selected ones does the talking.

Your Excellency, these are some of the issues why you will not get real farmers for the anchor borrower program except we try providing solutions to them. Without them, if you insist on 100,000, you will end up having the loan disburse to political farmers who will eventually not repay the loan.

1. Farm implements: Farm machineries are not available in the state. Those who will want to deceive you will quickly mention that previous administration did nothing. Your Excellency, just like you are trying to do now, the previous administrations in kogi state bought tractors but those tractors ended up being sold at a give away price. There is no way you can boost crop production without affordable farm implements. Mr Governor one need to pay about naira 150,000 in Adavi local government to be able to use the bulldozer own by the local government. You will also look for a lowbell that will cost you about 70,000 to convey the bulldozer to your farm. Worse still the local government have no driver for the bulldozer. Across all our local governments, the tractors are not in good condition because of their poor management. You might have to ask why the bulldozer owned by the state ADP was auction and to who. Also need to know the status of the one procure by the ministry of Agriculture and why it is not working.

2. seasonal farming : Your Excellency, the emphasy of the current anchor borrower program is on dry season farming. You will agree with me that the irrigation system in kogi state have not been fully developed. This the state government should do before asking that more farmers be registered for the program. You can also seek for the extension of the program beyond dry season farming to encourage more participation.

3. Centralization of the banking system : Your Excellency, based on the information available to me, the only bank chosen for anchor borrower program in kogi state is sterling bank which have their branch only in lokoja. So, farmers are expected to travel to lokoja from across all the 21 local government for account opening and other banking transaction to access the money. They will have to be in lokoja for more than five times because they are to access a loan that is not more than naira 200,000. The first challenge is that the rural farmers do not operate bank account but they are expected to submit their account details with BVN before they can access the loan. So, to encourage farmers in banking system, there is need to bring it closer to them.

4. The interest rate : The truth the federal government is running away from is that, for a government that is making noise day and night about agriculture, 9% interest rate is still high for starters. The sad aspect is that the banks are giving this money at 3% by the CBN for onward lending to farmers at 9%.

5. Training : Giving money to young graduates without making provision for their training will make the program fail even before the commencement. Your Excellency, the program is even failing in other states but they are not been publicize because those states want to access more money. When I talk about training, I am not referring to those ones where people are gathered in a room and given manual at the end, please send young interested farmers to existing farms for learning. Let government invest more on extension services. The extension officers should learn about morthern farming techniques and let them do a follow up on people accessing the CBN loan.

With this, I believe more people will register for the program and the result will be obvious.

SALISU O. UMAR is the Secretary General of Kogi Central Farmers Association