The Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the National Cooperative Financing Agency of Nigeria (CFAN), Emmanuel Atama, says efforts are underway to ensure that the proposed 500 million dollars loan from the World Bank reaches genuine farmers and is not diverted by political actors.
Atama made this known during an interview on Wednesday, noting that the intervention, which targets about one million farmers, is designed to address shortcomings of previous agricultural financing schemes.
He said earlier programmes often failed due to poor access to information and political interference, which prevented funds from getting to intended beneficiaries.
“This is going to be different,” Atama said.
“We now have a minister who is passionate about cooperatives and is working to remove bottlenecks that previously hindered effective implementation,” he added.
According to him, consultations with the World Bank had revealed flaws in past initiatives such as the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, with assurances that such challenges would be addressed in the new scheme.
Atama said the agency had begun sensitising farmers across the country and encouraging them to participate through cooperative societies in order to improve transparency and coordination.
He added that the loan would largely be disbursed in the form of agricultural inputs rather than cash to ensure proper utilisation.
“Even where cash is involved, it will be limited to about 10 to 15 per cent,” he said. “Most of the support will come as inputs to prevent misuse.”
He further explained that the agency plans to adopt a cluster farming model where farmers would operate within coordinated groups.
Under the arrangement, services such as land clearing would be centrally managed, while costs would be deducted directly from beneficiaries’ accounts.
Atama said the initiative is part of broader efforts to boost agricultural productivity and strengthen food security in Nigeria.
