Farmers Accuse Bank of Agriculture of Blocking Access to Loans

(Cross River farmers. Photo by Guardian Nigeria News)

Commercial farmers in Cross River State have accused the Bank of Agriculture (BoA) of failing to live up to its mandate, alleging that genuine farmers are being shut out of access to credit and other interventions needed to boost food production.

The farmers, among them the immediate past Chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in the state, Chief Ilem Nathaniel, and commercial fish farmer Capt. Agba Ukel (retd.), said the bank’s programmes have remained largely out of reach despite repeated applications.

Nathaniel alleged that only a negligible number of farmers, if any at all, had benefited from the bank’s facilities, describing the application process as cumbersome and frustrating.

He explained that prospective beneficiaries are often required to open accounts and satisfy several conditions, only to spend hours waiting at the bank without receiving any meaningful assistance.

“Farmers usually return home in tears after queuing for long hours. We move from one place to another seeking financial support and other interventions without success.

Even the government appears too distant from farmers, leaving them to fend for themselves,” he said.

Nathaniel attributed low agricultural productivity in the state to poor access to financing and inadequate infrastructure, particularly bad roads and weak transportation networks that make it difficult to move harvested produce to markets.

He insisted that the Bank of Agriculture has become largely inaccessible to genuine farmers and is no longer effectively fulfilling the purpose for which it was established.

Corroborating these claims, Capt. Ukel said he had met all the bank’s registration requirements but had yet to receive any meaningful support.

“The bank told me it only provides credit facilities to processors, but even that has hardly happened. Government agricultural financing is also a scam.

Most of the beneficiaries are people who do not even own farms. Genuine farmers are left without confidence or support, and without financing, it is difficult to expand production,” he said.

Responding to these concerns, the Cross River State Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development, Johnson Ebokpo, said the state government has set up dedicated units within the ministry to receive and address complaints from smallholder farmers.

Speaking at a recent press briefing in Calabar, Ebokpo assured farmers that the ministry would work to facilitate their access to credit facilities from specialised agricultural financial institutions as well as other intervention programmes.

Efforts to obtain an official response from the Bank of Agriculture regarding these allegations were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.