The missing N200 billion loan advanced to farmers by the federal government has been returned to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said Sheik Ahmed Abdullah, agriculture minister, yesterday in Abuja at a meeting with the House of Representatives committee on agriculture.

The committee is presently investigating the whereabouts of the funds, which was meant to assist farmers across the country to enhance food production.

Mr Abdullah told the committee that following some disagreement with managing banks, which led to some delays in the speed at which the fund was to be disbursed to farmers, the ministry was ordered to return the money back to the central bank.

“Now on the N200b, much has been written on the pages of newspapers. I somewhere frowned or looked at it as being fixed deposited somewhere and somewhere looked at it as a missing money,” he said.

“But in what we have on file which would soon come before you, there was specifically a designated bank that was supposed to bank the money but some [sic] conditionality created a wage between the beneficiaries and the bank; and the submission is that this lack of agreement between the beneficiaries and the bank affected the disbursement of the money, and that led to a matching order for the fund to be returned back to the Central Bank.”

On the auctioning of some tractor equipment in the ministry, which is also being investigated by the lawmakers, the minister said the exercise was a procedural one meant to dispose some outdated and used equipment that were no longer needed in the ministry.

Gap in communication

He said due process was followed, but blamed the ignorance of the members on communication gap existing between his ministry and the lawmakers.

Mr Abdullah assured the lawmakers that the committee would cooperate with the committee in its operations in order to achieve maximum success in its operations.

Gbenga Makajuola, chairman of the committee, explained that the meeting was convened to familiarize its members with the minister and his team who are expected to assume duties early this month.

Mr. Makanjuola had previously informed them that the House has launched investigations into the missing N200 billion and the auctioning of tractors by the ministry, adding that he (minister) would soon be invited to state the position of the ministry on the issues.