Recouping about N240 billion ‘revolving’ credit facilities granted to small-scale farmers and processors in the Federal Government’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme has been hampered by COVID-19 pandemic. About N5.4 billion was advanced to the farmers under MAAN but no repayment had been concluded when the disruption came around February/March. He lamented that the pandemic had dealt a devastating blow to farmers’ productivity during the dry season, off-taking logistics and repayment plans. About 78,000 farmers are said to be members of the association involved in the ABP scheme in the state. The ABP scheme was introduced by President Buhari in 2015 in furtherance of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Source: The Guardian July 22, 2020 04:30 UTC