Soya bean farmers in Bauchi State have asked the federal government to offer them waiver for the balance of the Anchor Borrowers loan the Central Bank of Nigeria gave to them six years ago.
Through the scheme, CBN disbursed N1.09 trillion to farmers across the country as at February this year.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ordered authorities of Nigeria’s apex bank to recover N577 billion balance of the loan which the farmers have not repaid.
A soya bean farmer who lives in Bauchi metropolis, Ali Umar, told LEADERSHIP that he cannot repay the loan because of the current tough economic situation in the country.
Umar said drought affected his farm in 2019, thus the harvest was not adequate enough to allow him to repay the loan for half of a hectare given to him through Anchor Borrowers scheme.
“I am appealing to the relevant authorities to consider the prevailing economic situation in the country at the moment and waive the balance of the Anchor Borrowers Scheme given to us.
“I only paid N2,000 of the N63,000 that I was supposed to pay,” he narrated.
Another soya bean farmer, Ruqayya Sani Matori, said she cannot repay the money because nobody contacted her over the loan.
At the moment, Matori owes the CBN through the Bauchi State Soya Beans Farmers Association, N62,000. “Anybody living in Nigeria at the moment is a witness to the current economic woes Nigerians are facing. In all honesty, it is not feasible for me to repay the money,” he lamented.
Our correspondent gathered that the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Bauchi State Command in collaboration with the Bauchi State Soya Beans Farmers Association invited the debtors to document and recover the loan.
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