Reps To Probe Non-Release Of NN55.29Bn Agricultural Intervention Funds …N118.95Bn To 550,000 Small Holder Farmers For NAGS-AP Project Implementation

By Alkassim Bala Tsakuwa, Abuja

The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Agricultural Production and Services to carry out an investigation into the circumstances leading to the non-releases of the intervention funds in the agricultural sector aimed at ensuring food security in the country and report back to the House within Two (2) weeks.

The committee is to specifically investigate the non-releases of NN55,295 billion and another N118.955 Billion for the implementation of the National Agriculture Growth Scheme and Agro-pocket (NAGS-AP) Project as support for 550,000 small holder farmers with subsidized critical agricultural inputs for rice, maize, soya beans and cassava value chains under the 2025 wet season and 2025/2026 dry season farming.

This followed the adoption of a motion on matters of urgent public importance moved by Hon. Bello Kaoje at the Plenary on Thursday.

Presenting the motion, he recalled that, shortly after his coming into office, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had on Thursday July 13th 2023 declared a state of emergency on Food Security.

According to the lawmaker, in addition to funding efforts by the Nigerian Government, a lot of agricultural interventions were received through the efforts of several development partners all aimed at boosting agricultural production.

Hon. Kaoje Informed that sometime in February 2023 Nigeria negotiated with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and signed an agreement for a twenty-five (25) year tenor loan to support National Agriculture Growth Scheme Agro-pocket Project for an amount not exceeding $134,000,000 (One Hundred and Thirty-Four Million USD). The first tranche of $99,665,000.00 was released to the Federal Government Consolidated Account after deducting the Front-End-Fee (FEF) of 0.025%.

“The Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) out of the total sum of $134 Million USD disbursed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) released the sums of N55,986,301,549.95 and N40,486,800,000.00 into the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security/National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP) Project account at Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) leaving a balance of N55,295,810,075.00 outstanding (undisclosed).

“The plan is for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security/National Agriculture Growth Scheme and Agro-pocket (NAGS-AP) Project to honour its obligations to the agro-dealers that provided agricultural inputs to 280,000 targeted registered wheat farmers under the first phase of the 2024/2025 dry season programme and distribution of agricultural inputs to 150,000 rice farmers under the second phase.

“Sometime in April 2024, Nigeria negotiated with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and signed a loan agreement on or about the 24th April, 2024 for a Food Security Emergency Support Loan for an amount not exceeding 15,000,000,000 (Fifteen Billion Japanese Yen).

“On or about the 25th March, 2025, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) disbursed the sum of 12,000,000,000 (Twelve Billion Japanese Yen), less Front-End-Fee (FEF) of 0.025% equivalent of $78,778,800.00 which represents N118,955,186,000 (One Hundred and Eighteen Billion, Nine Hundred and Fifty-Five Million, One Hundred and Eighty-Six Thousand Naira Only) to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation as the first trench”.

The lawmaker further stated that the respective funds for farm inputs were time bound for the 2024/2025 dry season farming which has passed, the 2025 wet season which has also passed and the 2025/2026 dry season farming which is currently passing.

He said, “This ugly situation has left many farmers stranded for critical farm inputs and consequently reduced agricultural output in the 2025 harvests because the affected farmers could not go to farm during the seasons due to non-supply of critical inputs.

“These funds were accessed from development partners for targeted purposes and despite disbursement to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, the funds have been unduly withheld from the implementing Ministry/Agency by the Federal Ministry of Finance beyond the timeframe for the utilization of the funds.

“Failure to release these funds for use to boost our agricultural production, the chances are the 2026 farming season will be greatly impacted negatively.

“There are currently funds up to about $200,000,000 (Two Hundred Million USD) to be disbursed to Nigeria by the African Development Bank (AfDB) under the Result Based Financing (RBF) but cannot be disbursed due to the non-implementation of the interventions with the funds already disbursed”.