Kano wheat farmers blame CBN for delay in wheat farming

wheat

Kano State wheat farmers have faulted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the delay in the take-off of this year’s wheat planting season in the state.

Chairman of the Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria (WFAN) Kano chapter, Faruk Rabiu, disclosed that participating banks withdrew from the anchor-borrower programme due to CBN policy of taking responsibility for 50 per cent risk.

 

“At initial stage, CBN insisted that the participating banks must take 50 per cent of the risk but the banks insisted that they can only bear 10 per cent of the risk. This is the reason why the banks withdrew from the programme because opening an account is one of the prerequisites for getting the loan,” Rabiu said.

 

The WFAN Chairman said though the CBN had cleared a total of 1,680 out of about 7,000 farmers that registered for the programme in the state, with a the second batch of about 4,000 registered farmers to be forwarded for clearance, he lamented that the number of farmers that registered was far below the 75, 000 targeted to register for the programme.

 

He however assured the farmers that the association was making effort to ensure that the programme commenced across the state within the next 10 days.

 

NAN reports that anxious farmers have continued to troop to WFAN Kano office seeking explanation from the officials on what caused the delay in the disbursement of the loan.