The leadership of the Taraba State chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, has urged its members who benefited from last year’s fertilizer subsidy loan to expedite the repayment process.
The call to action was made on Monday by the chairperson of the association in the state, Hajiya Amina Laraba Wambai, during a joint meeting of the State and Local Government Executives of the organization convened in Jalingo, the State capital.
Emphasizing the importance of honouring the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed with the association’s zonal coordinator, Wambai stressed that beneficiaries must settle their 50% balance of the fertilizer loan by December 2024.
This, according to her, is aimed at forestalling potential legal repercussions from suppliers.
Despite acknowledging the challenges faced by farmers during the previous rainy season due to insecurity perpetrated by bandits and kidnappers, Wambai underscored the necessity of loan repayment to unlock future opportunities for the farming community.
She said, “We aimed at fashioning out possible ways through which all beneficiaries will remit their loans to enable us to attract the various opportunities that are already in the pipeline for the next rainy season.”
She further reminded farmers of the financial obligations towards suppliers, highlighting the need to sustain a conducive business environment for continued support from various stakeholders.
While lamenting the adverse impact of insecurity and other challenges on farming activities in the state, some of the farmers who spoke, appealed to the organization to advocate for more time from the contractor to address prevailing issues.
