The House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security on Thursday commenced an investigation into insurance coverage for the N1.12 trillion Anchor-Borrowers Scheme.

The investigation is in continuation of how the N1.12 trillion meant for the execution of the Anchor Borrowers Programme was allegedly diverted by ministries, departments and agencies, as well as the disbursement of the fund as carried out by Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs).

In his representative, the representative of the Managing Director of the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC), Dayo Babaronti, said the Corporation only provided cover to 207,514 farmers to the tune of N109 billion under the Anchor-Borrower Scheme.

He disclosed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), contrary to the Anchor Borrowers Scheme’s initial policy, under which NAIC was appointed as the sole insurance company to cover participants, contracted two other insurance firms, Veritas Kapital Insurance and Leadway Insurance. Veritas Kapital Insurance and Leadway Insurance did not send representatives to the hearing.

Babaronti said overall, NAIC only provided 12% coverage for the scheme.

Giving a further breakdown of the involvement of NAIC, the representative of the Corporation, said for Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending ( NIRSAL) Plc’s agricultural financing ₦250 billion facility to support smallholder farmers across the country, NAIC only provided cover to the tune of ₦ 8,254,175 billion.

NIAC representative said the Corporation only provided N715 million worth of cover for 80 hectares of ginger farms out of the N1.6 Billion funding announced for the programme. On the Bank of Industry, Agro and Food Processor Scheme, Babaronti told the Committee that NAIC was not given any of the participants to provide insurance cover, contrary to the Anchor-Borrower policy.

Following his introductory statement, Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Chike Okafor, announced that the panel will be inviting NAIC on a soon-to-be-announced date, as the Committee has received many complaints from participants and farmers/commodity associations on the cover provided by the Corporation.

The lawmaker also explained that NAIC sent its submission late on Wednesday, giving the Committee limited time to study the documents sent to it by NAIC.

Earlier in his welcome address, Okafor reiterated that the House will uncover all the issues that hampered the successful implementation of Federal Government interventions targeted at improving food production in the country.

He disclosed that preliminary findings by the Committee indicate that stakeholders, especially farmers and farmer/commodity associations, were not involved in designing interventions such as the Anchor-Borrower Scheme, hence the unsatisfactory performance of the programme.

“The reason why we are here is that the programmes did not succeed 100%. If they had succeeded 100%, we would not be here”, the lawmaker said.