Onome Amuge
Nigeria’s flagship agricultural credit scheme, the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), has been declared a failure by the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN). This assessment, presented by Kabir Kebram, AFAN’s National President, underscores deep-seated concerns over the initiative’s structural integrity, transparency, and its ultimate inability to genuinely uplift smallholder farmers and agribusinesses despite the disbursement of over N1 trillion by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The ABP, launched in 2015 under the tenure of Godwin Emefiele, the former CBN governor, was envisioned as a cornerstone of Nigeria’s drive towards food self-sufficiency. Its core objective was to provide credit and essential input support to smallholder farmers, aiming to boost local production of staple crops such as rice, maize, and cotton, thereby reducing the nation’s reliance on food imports and conserving precious foreign exchange.
Official figures from the CBN indicated that the programme benefited more than four million farmers involved in 21 different agricultural commodities. The programme was associated with a reported increase in rice production from five million metric tonnes to about eight million tonnes within six years, along with a near 50 per cent drop in rice importation and a rise in mega rice mills to around 50.
However, from the outset, AFAN maintains it harboured profound reservations about the scheme’s design and execution. “As AFAN, we did not participate in the programme because our initial analysis showed us that the scheme was going to fail. It was not going to work,” stated Kabir Kebram, the association’s president, reinforcing long-standing concerns that have now culminated in an outright repudiation of the programme.
Despite over N1 trillion disbursed through the ABP over its lifespan, the programme demonstrably struggled to deliver on its ambitious promises of financial sustainability, farmer empowerment, and productivity growth. This could be seen from the loan repayment rate of just 40 per cent and a default rate approaching 60 per cent. This massive repayment gap has left a hole in the CBN’s intervention fund, raising critical questions about the efficiency of government-driven credit initiatives without robust oversight.
Agricultural stakeholders have consistently argued that the ABP was plagued by fundamental structural flaws, limited genuine inclusion, weak loan recovery mechanisms, and insufficient monitoring. The most notable accusation is that many of the intended beneficiaries (genuine smallholder farmers) were reportedly sidelined or left without support. Instead, politically connected actors and opportunistic intermediaries are widely believed to have exploited the system, diverting funds and inputs with little to no accountability.
Kebram did not mince words in linking the programme’s failures to broader governance issues. He referenced the legal troubles currently facing former Governor Emefiele, stating, “He [Emefiele] is in jail because of this and still has problems because of the money that was used there.” This direct correlation between the ABP and high-profile allegations of financial impropriety signals a deeper malaise within how agricultural interventions have been historically managed at the national level.
The Anchor Borrowers’ Programme was conceived to create an ecosystem linking smallholder farmers to larger buyers or processors. It aimed to channel commercial bank credit into farming, thereby boosting agricultural capacity utilisation, raising farmers’ productivity and incomes, and ultimately alleviating rural poverty. The guidelines stipulated a clear repayment mechanism, stating that farmers were to repay their loans, including principal and interest, with produce delivered to an anchor. The anchor would then pay the cash equivalent to the farmer’s account, which in turn would remit the funds to the participating bank, which originally applied to the CBN for financing after due diligence.
However, the reality of its implementation deviated sharply from this ideal. Adebowale Edalere, chief executive officer of Green Revolution Konsult, laid much of the blame squarely on the government itself, citing the appointment of incompetent and unskilled people to lead the programme. While acknowledging that some participants collected the money and did not pay back, Edalere asserted that the government bore at least 90 per cent of the responsibility for the failure. “If you set up a scheme, you must ensure that all machinery is in place to ensure that loans that are given to people are repaid,” he argued.
Edalere pointed to specific operational failures that effectively primed the programme to fail. He highlighted instances where most participants from the southern part of the country that were supposed to get the inputs before the rains did not get them until after the rains. Such untimely delivery of crucial inputs meant that farmers, planting late, could not achieve any reasonable output,” leading to inevitable loan defaults. “Who do you blame? You blame the government for not appointing people who have the competence to do the job,” he reiterated.
The absence of effective loan collection mechanisms and, shockingly, allegations that some of the officials took money from the participants and told them not to pay back, further compounded the systemic breakdown.
As it stands, the current CBN leadership, under Governor Yemi Cardoso, has taken a decisive step in response to these widespread concerns. It has halted all interventionist programmes, including the controversial ABP, marking a departure from previous strategies. Governor Cardoso pledged to adopt a more market-aligned and accountable framework for development finance, signalling an end to the era of heavy government-driven credit initiatives characterised by minimal oversight and limited private sector integration.
However, The collapse of the ABP has now intensified urgent calls for a fundamentally new approach to agricultural finance in Nigeria, one that is genuinely SME-focused, transparent, and attuned to the granular realities of smallholder farming. Agricultural stakeholders are advocating for inclusive models that go beyond mere credit disbursement. Future interventions, they argue, must incorporate comprehensive value chain linkages, guaranteed access to markets, robust training programmes, and stringent monitoring systems to ensure that credit actually reaches genuine farmers and is utilised productively.
Analysts believe that the failure of the ABP underscores the critical importance of collaborative financing models in achieving national food security, fostering rural economic development, and creating sustainable jobs. Future interventions, they assert, must be firmly anchored in partnerships with credible farmers’ associations, active private sector stakeholders, and well-organised cooperatives. This collaborative framework is seen as essential for building systems that can work effectively beyond paper promises and deliver tangible, long-term impact.
Nigeria’s agricultural sector continues to face a myriad of persistent challenges, ranging from debilitating inflation and pervasive insecurity to the existential threats posed by climate change and outdated infrastructure. In this complex landscape, the need for efficient, scalable, and genuinely people-centred financing solutions has never been more urgent.
Experts in the agricultural sector believe that the lessons from the ABP’s failure will undoubtedly shape the contours of future agricultural policies, as the nation seeks to transform its vast agricultural potential into sustained prosperity and food abundance.
