State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Zaccheus Atte who spoke in an interview with Vanguard in Lokoja, the state capital yesterday said that the money was intact in the Bank of Agriculture, BOA.
His words: “The money is with the BOA. The ministry is not against the fund being disbursed. We just decided to increase the number of beneficiaries from the initial 3,000 to 10,000 farmers.
“The loan scheme was flagged off some weeks before my appointment. But I observed that the forms had already been hijacked by civil servant in the ministry who inserted names of their family members and friends, as well as some political farmers as beneficiaries.
“You will be surprised that some names appeared eight times in the list. Some of the civil servants also, put their names, those of their wives or husbands and other family members. Some even collected money from the farmers with the promise to facilitate the loan for them.”
Atte however, said the state government was short-listing the names of the real farmers to enable them benefit from the loan and also give room to other farmers who did not have the opportunity to obtain the forms at the first distribution stage.
“The loan is meant not only for farming but for all those in the agricultural value-chain. We are increasing the list of beneficiaries and immediately we finish sorting out the forms, we will commence disbursement to the beneficiaries,” he said.
0 thoughts on “Kogi Govt Dismisses Alleged Missing N750m Agric Loan”