Reps Committee Probe Insurance Gaps In $1.12tr Anchor Borrowers Scheme

The House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security has begun an investigation into insurance coverage tied to the 1.12 trillion naira, Anchor Borrowers Programme, amid allegations of fund diversion and poor implementation.

At an investigative hearing, Committee Chairman, Chike Okafor said lawmakers are examining how funds earmarked for the scheme were disbursed by participating financial institutions and allegedly mismanaged by ministries, departments and agencies.

A representative of the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation, NAIC, Dayo Babaronti, told lawmakers the agency provided insurance coverage to 207,514 farmers valued at 109 billion naira under the programme, about 12% of the total scheme.

Babaronti said the Central Bank of Nigeria, despite initially designating NAIC as the sole insurer, later engaged two additional firms Veritas Kapital Insurance and Leadway Insurance which were absent from the hearing.

He added that under a separate 250 billion naira agricultural financing facility managed by the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, NIRSAL Plc, NAIC provided coverage worth about 8.25 billion naira.

For a ginger farming initiative, NAIC insured only 715 million naira covering 80 hectares, out of a 1.6 billion naira funding allocation, Babaronti said.

He also told the committee that the corporation was not involved in providing insurance for beneficiaries under the Bank of Industry’s agro and food processing scheme, contrary to policy expectations.

Okafor said the committee would invite NAIC again after reviewing its late submission, noting that lawmakers had received complaints from farmers and commodity associations over inadequate insurance coverage.

He said preliminary findings suggest key stakeholders, including farmers, were not involved in designing the programme, contributing to its limited success.

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

The House of Representatives in July 2025 mandated multiple committees to investigate the alleged misuse of government agricultural interventions and funding across federal agencies outside the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

Oduyemi Odumade, Edited By Grace Namiji