By Ifeanyi Olannye
Asaba – Mr Anthony Umunna, the Director of Empowerment, Coordinator Farmers projects of the Buhari Campaign Organisation nationwide, gives reasons for initial failure of the CBN/Anchor Borrowers Programme in Delta.
Umunna told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday that the project failed in its first attempt because there was no anchor to off-take the produce.
He said that there were hiccups in the profiling of the farmers which made it difficult for input suppliers who ventured into the programme to recover their funds on time.
“The reason for the failure of the pioneer projects was because the farmers and the financial institutions had confidence in the state government.
“And the banks cannot give the farmers money without guarantee because it is a revolving loan from the CBN.
“Since the state government is the one that profiled the farmers, it is supposed to provide the guarantee and off take the products.
“The banks required the off takers/anchors to profile the farmers and pay the guaranteed deposit of 70 per cent of whatever the amount required from CBN,” he said.
He said that the cassava farmers and the fish farmers who keyed into the programme at inception including himself, suffered losses due to market glut after producing.
Umunna said that the losses was because there was nobody to off take the produce.
He said that the projects could not succeed in the state because of poor coordination and lack of due process.
According to him, the CBN-Anchor Borrowers programme in the state has now become easier for farmers to access loan doing the right thing.
“The process has provided the opportunity for farmers to form clusters, identify with a financial institution and submit their BVN for credibility.
“The only way to actualise the Anchor Borrowers project was to follow the due process as laid down by the CBN.
“The project had the initial hiccups and challenges because various interests showed up and a particular bank was preventing others from coming in.
“What the CBN requires you as a farmer to do is to profile yourself in a particular farmer group, provide your name, phone number, Bank Verification Number (BVN) for authenticity.
“Again, we have a Project Management Team (PMT) made up of representatives of the farmers, insurance, participating financial institutions, CBN representatives and the Anchor person.
“Also this value chain involves the off taker and anchor, processors and the final consumer.
“Those cassava farmers who got involved in the project ran into hitch because there was no off taker for the product after the cassava were matured.
“There was glut and the price of cassava dropped to a very drastic level that all participating farmers lost.
“Before the glut, we were selling a bag of 50kg Cassava for N3,500, but we sold a bag for N1,250 and it was at this point that the farmers got discouraged.
“So, I lost N2.8 million the first year and the second year, I lost N3 million due to glut.’’
He said that for the 2019 farming season, farmers in the state have been profiled for fish and rice farming, adding that modalities were been put in place to make the project hitch free. (NAN)