Prof. Mahmoud Daneji, the Managing Director, Kano State’s Agricultural and Rural Development Authority, says the state government has constituted a committee to recover N850 million loan from rice farmers in the state.

Daneji, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Kano, said that the loan was taken by the farmers under the Anchor Borrower programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He said the committee was being headed by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Alhaji.

NAN recalls that a total of 5,540 rice farmers in Kano benefited from the programme, when it was launched in November 2016.

The farmers received a total of N906 million as loans from the CBN under the programme while each of the farmer got N163,710 as loan.

Daneji said the state government was surprised that majority of the rice farmers who benefited from the facility were yet to repay the loan.

“I am not happy to say that most of the rice farmers that benefited from the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme are yet to refund over N850 million.

“A total of N906 million was disbursed to the farmers but regrettably not more than N50 million was recovered from the money as most of the farmers think that it is a national cake,’’ Daneji said.

The state Chairman of All Farmers Association (AFAN), Alhaji Faruk Rabi’u had earlier in an interview with NAN appealed to its members to repay their loans.

He reminded the 27,000 registered rice farmers in the state that the loan was not a gift but a revolving loan. (NAN)