Anchor borrower: Kano RIFAN prosecutes 300 defaulting farmers

Kano chapter of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) has begun prosecution processes of no fewer than 300 rice farmers in the state for anchor borrower scheme defaulting.

Speaking to newsmen in Kano  the state chapter chairman of RIFAN Alhaji Abubakar Haruna Aliyu revealed that, over 60, 000 bags of rice paddy have been recovered so far adding that the association will continue to make recovery for the success and continuation of the scheme.

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“It will interest you to note that, the association was able to recover over 60, 000 bags of paddy in our recovery efforts, but we need to do more and that is why we have taken the court actions on defaulters for the scheme to succeed as well as to continue in assisting rice farmers and rice production in the state,” said Kano state RIFAN chairman.

He added that, the association has consulted a group of lawyers to assist in furtherance of the recovery processes embarked upon by RIFAN in the state.

One of the lawyers consulted by RIFAN Barr Muhammed Aliyu revealed that, over 2, 500 demand notices have been sent to rice farmers who have been enrolled in the anchor borrower scheme in 15 local government areas in the state asking them to respect part of the scheme’s agreements of paying back.

According to him, no fewer than 300 rice farmers have been under prosecution with additional 200 to be taken to court for defaulting.

The farmer are being prosecuted for failing to redeem the anchor borrower intervention funds they had accessed in 2017, 2018 and 2019 .

Recall that Kano state Public Complaints and Anti Corruption Commission (PCACC) had based on actionable petition interrogated state executives of RIFAN over N10bn accessed by the farmers in 2018 with a view to identifying the loopholes in the process of redeeming the agricultural intervention loan.