Farmers have disagreed with the Nigerian Agricultural, Cooperative and Rural Development Bank over the
disbursement of N1.4bn credit to oil palm farmers in the last seven years. The Head of Credit, NACRDB, Mr. Celestine Ohale, had told stakeholders at an oil palm conference that ended on Friday in Owerri, Imo State, that about N27bn was
approved by the NACRDB between 2001 and 2007 for the development of agriculture.

“Out of that amount, N1.4bn has been disbursed to the oil palm industry between 2001 and 2007,” Ohale said.

But farmers disagreed sharply with the figure rolled out by the development bank saying they never
benefited from the loans.

“This is the biggest lie I have ever heard from the government. We have not received anything,” Mr. J.A
Ehi-Okunbor, who is the chairman of the Oil Palm Growers Association in Delta State, said.

He challenged the bank to publish the list of beneficiaries.

The farmers also denied receiving assistance from the N37m budgeted for Vegetable Oil Development Programme
and the Presidential Initiative of Tree Crops in the 2007 budget.

“Monies set aside for agriculture never reached farmers. The funds were hijacked by politicians,”
Prof. B. A. Onuegbu of the Rivers State University of Technology, alleged.

Ehi-Okunbor called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to intervene in the disbursement of the N50bn loan
scheme, another move initiated by the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“If nothing is done, the scheme will be a mirage,” the National Vice-Chairman, All Farmers Association of
Nigeria, Mr. Nosa Osiomwan, said.

Obasanjo had initiated a N50bn loan scheme for farmers with the aim of boosting agricultural production.

The N50bn was pooled from contributions from the federal, the CBN, commercial banks, the states and the
local government councils.

But local farmers said bureaucratic bottlenecks were hindering the disbursement of funds.

But an Assistant Director, CBN, Mr. Lewis Ajaero, said some of the farmers failed to meet the laid down
criteria to access the funds.

He also said that the consolidation of the banking industry would soon compel banks to voluntarily offer
loans to farmers at low interest rates.

However, Osiomwan called on the CBN to compel banks, including the NACRDB, to relax their terms of lending
in order to create an environment for more farmers to access the loans.

He said for oil palm that took a longer gestation period, there was the need for the CBN to compel the
banks to offer long-term loans.

According to him, the neglect of agriculture and poor financing was a major constraint to food security.

A traditional ruler, Eze J.O Muruako, of Ihiagwa, Imo State, said the story of oil palm in the country was
‘sad’.

“We are still regretting our failure. We talk and talk without taking actions,” Muruako said.

He said the failure of the oil palm industry was a result of the invasion of the industry by politicians, who he said, came into the sector to frustrate government policies.

According to him, all the oil palm farms in the country were dying because of the corruption perpetuated by politicians.

“We mix politics with business and that has been our failure,” he said.

He called on the governments of the oil palm producing states to privatise the government-owned farms in their domain in order to boost production.