From: Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Benue House of Assembly has set up a six-man ad-hoc committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the difficulty in accessing the agricultural loans by the people of the state.
The Assembly took the decision after a debate on a Motion of Urgent Public Importance moved by the Majority Leader, Mr. Benjamin Adanyi.
Adanyi had informed the House that the 8th Assembly, in 2016, approved the sum of N2 billion to be matched with the Federal Government through the Bank of Industry (BoI) and Bank of Agriculture (BoA) as agricultural loans to Benue people.
He, however, expressed dismay that since then, only a negligible percentage of the people had been able to access the facilities due to the stringent conditions laid down by these banks for accessibility, fearing that certain persons were frustrating the wonderful idea.
The Majority leader also alleged that even those who had met the conditions for repayments had not been given the loans thus rubbishing the reason for instituting the loans which was to enable the people of the state diversify so as to avoid over reliance on oil.
He, therefore, prayed that an ad-hoc committee be given within one week to look into the matter and tell the House what was responsible for the delay and frustration in disbursing the loan.
Seconding the motion, Joseph Ojobo (Ogbadibo/PDP), lamented that some of his constituents formed a cooperative as required by the banks but had not been able to access the loans till date.
Supporting the motion, Richard Ujege (Konshisha), Terhumba Chabo (Gboko West) and Matthew Ire (Oju II) agreed that a committee be set up to find out how the loan accessibility could be made customer friendly so as to enable their constituents benefit.
In his remark, Speaker Terkimbi Ikyange, set up a six-man committee chaired by the Deputy Speaker, James Okefe, to find out how much of the money approved had so far been accessed.
He further advised the committee to find out when the money was accessed, what percentage of the counterpart funds had been disbursed and any other findings that would help in ending the difficulties surrounding the accessibility of the loans.
The committee which has two weeks to submit its report also has Iana Jato, Adams Okloho, Avine Agbom and Matthew Ire, as members.