Maize Association Assures Banks on ABP loan recovery
By Ene Okwanihe, Ibadan
The Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN) in its strategic loan recovery meeting for South-West region has assured their Private Financing Initiatives (PFI’s) that they are committed to ensuring farmers who benefitted from the Central Bank of Nigeria Anchor Borrowers Program (ABP) loan would repay.
The Meeting which held in Ibadan the Oyo state capital, South West Nigeria had in attendance representatives of the Central Bank of Nigeria Bank (CBN), Bank of Agriculture (BoA), Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation, Unity Bank of Nigeria and MAAN state chairmen from the region and National Executives.
The National President of the Association Dr. Bello Abubakar, who went hard on the state chairmen said with what the loan has achieved in the maize value chain in Nigeria, beneficiaries should be able to pay back the loans.
He told the state chairmen that there was no need for pretence and that they needed to face the reality that these loans needed to be repaid before the end of this administration.
“This is something that is very critical and very important and this time around we must tell ourselves the truth, how we get these famers to repay these loans. If you the state chairmen distributed the inputs to the farmers, if you didn’t distribute it you are responsible, so tell us, let us know how we can get the monies back to the banks because Unity Bank and BoA are always under pressure from the CBN. It is a matter of business so before the end of this administration we must make sure this loan has been repaid back to the bank so that the banks will live in peace and we can also live in peace”
Dr. Abubakar noted that they are not unaware of the challenges faced at some point or the other but that the challenges would also be discussed and looked into.
CBN
The representative of the Central Bank of Nigeria, from Development Finance office Ibadan Mrs. Yetunde Odetayo urged farmers to repay the loan in order to encourage the bank to do more.
“Our state Chairmen should relay this message to the farmers that they should ensure timely repayment of this loan, this will only serve as a justification for CBN to want to do more for us, if we do not repay this loans, there is no way they would be able to give another one. We don’t want to end this program, if we repay this loan it will serve as a justification for the management to want to extend this program”
Mrs. Odetayo noted that the ABP has contributed to the increase in production and farmers outputs, empowering smallholder farmers, with the aim of increasing agricultural output and ensuring food price stability in the country.
BOA
The Representative of the Bank of Agriculture, Head of Loans and Assets Mr. Isaac Faniyi called for synergies between the association, the banks and the insurance companies to recover the monies.
Mr. Faniyi called on the CBN to activate the use of BVN to track and recover the monies because some of the farmers have the repayment but are not willing to pay.
He commended the Maize Association saying that among the entire commodity Associations only Cocoa and Maize Association are paying and making efforts to clear the loans.
INSURANCE
The representative of the Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation, (NAIC) Zonal Manager South-West, Kemi Famodun urged all stakeholders involved to ensure early distribution of inputs to farmers as late distribution has had adverse effects on outputs and general performance.
Famodun who disclosed that NAIC has paid out claims to a tune of over 250 million to farmers from 10 states of the federation in 2021, said if inputs should be provided on time as at when needed as most of the problem farmers faced stem from late distribution of inputs.
The strategic meeting with maize farmers and stakeholders on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers loan recovery is a continuous event that will cover all the regions in the country.
