Move to recover N4bn loan from cotton farmers begins
The Cotton Producers and Merchants Association (COPMA) has begun moves to recover N4 billion loan distributed to farmers across some cotton producing states in the country.
The loan is said to have been given under the 2019 wet season Anchor-Borrower Programme.
This was revealed at the inauguration of the recovery committee for the 2019 wet season Anchor - Borrower scheme under the aegis of CBN-COPMA and NIRSAL-COPMA in Katsina.
The National President of COPMA, Alhaji Lawal Sani Matazu, disclosed that the programme was part of the Federal Government’s policy to revamp the nation’s agricultural sector to enable farmers get economic freedom.
“The programme is aimed at providing an opportunity for a common man, a peasant farmer especially, to have access to agricultural loan at its doorsteps without any collateral or all those conventional protocols and at cheaper rate charges,” he said.
The national president added that 22,000 farmers nationwide participated in the programme, which covered 24,000 hectares of farms with expected yield of 36,969 metric tonnes of cotton that will cost N4 billion.
“The minimum guaranteed price for the produce is agreed at N150 per Kg. The price is believed to be a reasonable one for the farmers to make profit after repaying their loan. In the event that the market price of the produce is above the minimum agreed price, the produce will be collected at the rate of the market prevailing price,” said Alhaji Lawal Sani Matazu.
He further enjoined the recovery committee to exploit all available and peaceful avenues to recover the loans for the sustainability of the programme as it was designed as a revolving loan.
In his opening remark, the National Secretary of the association, Alhaji Kamilu Sheikh Munnir, said the programme for cotton farmers started in 2016 as a simple loan designed by the FG to enable farmers have access to inputs easily.
“COPMA came into the programme in 2017 and each farmer/beneficiary was allocated three hectares. All that were distributed to them were in form of seeds, pesticides and other inputs and the repayment is expected to be with the cotton produced by the farmers not in cash,” said Alhaji Kamilu.
The representative of Central Bank of Nigeria, Alhaji Hamza Agawa, from Katsina branch called on the members of the committee to take the work with all the seriousness it deserves.
“Recovering loan is not as easy as dishing it out to the farmers. You need to, therefore, strategize as some farmers might decide to act funny. The success or otherwise of this programme depends largely on the work of this committee to recover the loans,” he said.