Kogi targets 10,000 small scale farmers with N750m loan

The Commissioner who disclosed this to our reporter, during the weekend, in reaction to the allegation that the state has refused to distribute the loan to farmers, said the delay was as a result of anomalies discovered in some of the applicants’ forms.He said that the ministry was correcting the anomalies so that many farmers […]

The Commissioner who disclosed this to our reporter, during the weekend, in reaction to the allegation that the state has refused to distribute the loan to farmers, said the delay was as a result of anomalies discovered in some of the applicants’ forms.
He said that the ministry was correcting the anomalies so that many farmers in the state would benefit from the loan.
“When I was appointed as the commissioner for agriculture, they had already flagged off the distribution with 50 farmers. But while scrutinsing the forms, we discovered that some people had submitted up to eight forms, including those of their family members. We got to know this when we called the phone numbers on the forms.
“We have now scrutinised every form and called the phone numbers on them and verified the addresses on the form because you have about 10 forms bearing the same untraceable addresses.”
He said while his predecessor targeted 1,000 farmers on the loan scheme, they were targeting 10,000 farmers, adding that the loan amount would be reduced to N100, 000 per farmer.
He said that the loan was meant for small scale farmers in the rural areas to increase their yields.