By Christiana Ekpa
The House of Representatives has launched a probe into the alleged mismanagement of over N2 trillion government funds meant for agricultural development and food security initiatives.
The investigation, which will be conducted by a joint committee, aims to uncover instances of corruption, inefficiency, and misuse of funds by various government agencies, schemes, and programs outside the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security over the past eight years.
This followed the adoption of a motion moved by Hon. Chike Okafor during plenary in Abuja.
Moving the motion, Okafor noted that there is a growing food scarcity and malnutrition in Nigeria and the alleged mismanagement of agricultural funds intended for agricultural development in the country.
He also noted that the Federal Government, through various schemes and interventions in the last eight
years have spent over two trillion Naira in funding agricultural interventions with the view of making food available for millions of Nigerians, but due to the alleged mismanagement,misapplication
of funds and abuse of the programs, Nigeria is still experiencing food scarcity and malnutrition
According to him, the reports and allegations of abuse, mismanagement, and misapplication of government
intervention funds earmarked for agricultural development and food security initiatives in Nigeria
through the Central Bank of Nigeria , through the Anchor Borrowers Program disbursed about I.12 trillion Naira to 4.67 million farmers involved in either maize, rice or wheat farming through 563 (five hundred and sixty-three only) anchors.
“The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) disbursed (two hundred and fifteen billion, sixty six million, nine hundred and eighty thousand, two hundred and seventy four Naira, fifty two Kobo) so far to facilitate agriculture and ago businesses.
“Bank of Industry (BOI) disbursed 3 billion Naira to twenty-two thousand, one hundred and twenty small holder farmers through the Agriculture Value chain financing (AVCF) Programme. Additionally, the bank funded forty nine agro and food processing businesses with 59.4 billion Naira in loans.
“In 2023, the Federal Government of Nigeria unveiled a 5 billion Naira Loan facility to the Bank
of Agriculture (BOA) for Livestock farmers across the country.”
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