They were asked to deposit money into Heritage Bank accounts open for the purpose of loan disbursement.
Farmers under the Smallholder Economic Interest Farmers Agricultural Cooperative (SEIFAC) have lamented the silence of the company with regards to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Farmers Anchor Borrowers Scheme.
The affected farmers told SaharaReporters that they were yet to receive the loans despite registering for the programme two years ago.
According to them, in 2021, they were asked to deposit money into Heritage Bank accounts open for the purpose of loan disbursement.
“What we received were branded ATM Cards, but that's just for some of us, some are yet to receive theirs.
“Another year's rainy season is here again but as of today, nothing is heard from SEIFAC after the disagreement between SEIFAC farmers who refused to release the ATM cards details to SEIFAC.
“The farmers' refusal was because they heard a piece of information alleging that some percentage of the proposed N3,000,000.00 will be automatically debited in favour of SEIFAC.
“The SEIFAC WhatsApp group that was the source of information from State headquarters of SEIFAC has remained locked by the admin and only admin can post update. For over four months now, there has been no update on the way forward.”
They further stated that they had learned that the CBN had previously released the Anchor borrowers’ loan to the farmers and are apprehensive as to why there was no official update from the SEIFAC website nor the WhatsApp group created in this regard.