The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending on Tuesday said it would not succumb to blackmail from those planning to sabotage its disbursement of agric sector intervention funds of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The agency said this in a statement issued by the Head of Corporate Communications, Anne Ihugba.
NIRSAL said it had uncovered plans by some persons and groups claiming to be stakeholders or participants in various agricultural projects to frustrate the disbursement of the intervention funds.
It claimed in the statement that some farmers who failed credit checks were being used to frustrate the disbursement of funds under the CBN intervention window.
The statement read in part, “In an effort to invest their bogus claims with invented credibility, these elements have been making false claims that NIRSAL, a CBN-owned entity, is holding up funds released by the CBN under the Anchor Borrowers Programme.
“Some of them have even gone as far as organising anti-NIRSAL protests citing documents that were still undergoing processing and funds yet to be released by the CBN.
“Others have also been busy whipping up sentiments against NIRSAL amongst farmers, who they claim to represent.
“Our investigations revealed that among these elements are so-called ‘leaders’ of farmers’ groups who did not meet the relevant criteria for participation in the ABP through the NIRSAL window, by filing up registers of ‘cooperatives’ they formed with fake names and unidentifiable persons.”
As an agricultural finance risk management institution, NIRSAL in the statement said it had no intention of compromising its internal processes or the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme guidelines.
By: Ifeanyi Onuba,
Punch News
