The House of Representatives has intensified its investigation into the controversial N1.12 trillion Anchor Borrowers Programme, with a new focus on the level of insurance coverage provided to beneficiaries. At an investigative hearing on Thursday, the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security examined the role of insurers amid wider concerns over the alleged diversion and mismanagement of funds by Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and participating financial institutions. The ongoing probe stems from a House resolution in July 2025 mandating an inquiry into the alleged misuse of agricultural funds.
A representative of the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC), Dayo Babaronti, told lawmakers that the corporation insured only 207,514 farmers, covering about N109 billion under the programme—a fraction of the total intervention. He added that NAIC accounted for just 12 per cent of the scheme’s insurance coverage. Babaronti further disclosed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) departed from the programme’s original framework, which designated NAIC as the sole insurer, by engaging two additional firms – Veritas Kapital Insurance and Leadway Insurance, who were absent from the hearing.
Providing a breakdown of NAIC’s involvement in related interventions, Babaronti revealed that the corporation covered only about N8.25 billion out of the N250 billion Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) facility for smallholder farmers. He also stated that NAIC insured just N715 million for 80 hectares of ginger farms, despite a N1.6 billion allocation for the project. In the Bank of Industry’s Agro and Food Processor Scheme, the corporation was reportedly not engaged at all, contrary to the programme’s guidelines.
Following the presentation, committee chairman Chike Okafor said the panel would invite NAIC again after reviewing its submission, which was received late, limiting lawmakers’ ability to scrutinise the documents. He noted that the committee had received multiple complaints from farmers and commodity associations regarding inadequate insurance coverage. Preliminary findings suggest that key stakeholders, particularly farmers and their associations, were largely excluded from the design of programmes such as the Anchor Borrowers Scheme, contributing to their poor performance.
The Anchor Borrowers Programme, introduced in 2015 by the CBN, is a federal government intervention designed to boost agricultural production among smallholder farmers. The scheme provides loans and farm inputs to farmers, who are then linked to large-scale processors (known as “anchors”) that purchase their produce at agreed prices. It was conceived to reduce food imports, stabilise commodity prices and enhance food security. The current probe aims to uncover factors that undermined federal government interventions designed to boost food production, with the chairman stating, “The reason we are here is because the programmes did not succeed 100 per cent. If they had, we will not be here”.
