Reps Investigate NAIC, Leadway, Veritas Over N1.12tn Anchor Borrowers Funds
The House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security has opened an inquiry into how the N1.12 trillion Anchor Borrowers Scheme was insured.
The Committee led by Chike Okafor, is probing how the N1.12tn meant for the execution of the Anchor Borrowers Programme was allegedly diverted by Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well the disbursement of the fund as carried out by Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs).
At the hearing in Abuja this Thursday, the representative of the Managing Director of the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC), Dayo Babaronti, said the Corporation only provided cover to 207,514 farmers to the tune of N109 billion under the Anchor-Borrower Scheme.
He disclosed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), contrary to the Anchor Borrowers Scheme’s initial policy, under which NAIC was appointed as the sole insurance company to cover participants, contracted two other insurance firms, Veritas Kapital Insurance and Leadway Insurance.
Babaronti said overall, NAIC only provided 12% coverage for the scheme.
However, Veritas Kapital Insurance and Leadway Insurance did not send representatives to the hearing.
Giving a further breakdown of the involvement of NAIC, the representative of the Corporation, said for Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending ( NIRSAL) Plc’s agricultural financing ₦250 billion facility to support smallholder farmers across the country, NAIC only provided cover to the tune of N8,254,175 billion.
The NIAC representative said the Corporation only provided N715 million worth of cover for 80 hectares of ginger farms out of the N1.6 Billion funding announced for the programme. On the Bank of Industry, Agro and Food Processor Scheme, Babaronti told the Committee that NAIC was not given any of the participants to provide insurance cover, contrary to the Anchor-Borrower policy.
Earlier in his welcome address, Okafor reiterated that the House will uncover all the issues that hampered the successful implementation of Federal Government interventions targeted at improving food production in the country.
He disclosed that preliminary findings by the Committee indicate that stakeholders, especially farmers and farmer/commodity associations, were not involved in designing interventions such as the Anchor-Borrower Scheme, hence the unsatisfactory performance of the programme.
“The reason why we are here is because the programmes did not succeed 100%. If they had succeeded 100%, we will not be here”, the lawmaker said.
Recall that the House on Tuesday July, 1, 2025, mandated its Committees on Nutrition and Food Security and Agricultural Production and Services, Agricultural Colleges and Institutions and Finance to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the alleged misuse of government interventions and agricultural funding by departments, agencies, Schemes and Programmes of the Federal Government outside the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
