The Kano State Government has set up a nine-man committee to recover over ₦900 million given as loans to rice farmers under the Anchor Borrower Programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Prof. Mahmoud Daneji, the Managing Director of the state Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA), disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Kano on Saturday.
He said members of the committee included representatives of the CBN, Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN).
Daneji said the committee was expected to visit the defaulting farmers in all the 44 local government areas of the state with a view to ensuring that they pay the loan within the stipulated period.
According to him, the defaulting farmers have been given up to the end of this harvesting season to pay the loans or face prosecution.
“They have up to the end of the harvesting season to pay the loans or else the government will go ahead to recover the loans through legal means,” Daneji said.
He lamented that a total of ₦906 million was disbursed to the rice farmers in the state but regretted that not up to ₦6 million was recovered.
Newsmen recall that the state chapter of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) recently constituted a similar committee with a view to recovering the loans.