550,000 rice farmers to get soft CBN loans as ‘compensation’ following 2018 floods

The Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved compensation via loans for over 550,000, rice farmers affected by the 2018 flood disaster.

The RIFAN National President, Aminu Goronyo, said on Tuesday in Abuja that the CBN governor had directed the loans should be restructured for a period of four years, according to a News Agency of Nigeria report.

“Instead of paying the loan three instalments within a year, the loan will be restructured to be paid within four years now and be paid by instalments,” he said.

Goronyo said only the affected farmers under the RIFAN/CBN/ ABP model programme would benefit from  the ‘compensation’.

He also said the resolution was an outcome of a meeting with the director, development finance of CBN and RIFAN executives, the agency reported.

He said that RIFAN only championed the case of affected farmers under its care but expressed the hope that all the registered farmers under the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) that were affected would benefit from it.

Goroyo said the bank had also directed that a fresh loan should be given to the affected farmers so that they could go back to the field and recover their losses.

“RIFAN is working on the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Presidency and the CBN to compensate the victims as promised by President Mohammadu Buhari.

“RIFAN is also seeking assistance from the CBN to restructure the loans to alleviate the suffering of the affected farmers and make them go back to the field,’’ he said.

He said another meeting on adequate compensation to the affected farmers in under the RIFAN/ CBN/ ABP model programme Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) indicated that succour was on the way for farmers negatively impacted by the excessive rains of 2018.

The flood destroyed over 100,000 hectares of rice farms in Jigawa and affected 19,000 rice farmers across the 23 local government areas of the state, according to reports at the time.

Also, Sokoto State said it lost an estimated 61,197 tonnes of rice valued at N27.5 billion because of the flood during the last cropping season.

Also RIFAN, Adamawa chapter, over 5,000 of its members were affected by the flood