The Senate has indicted the Bank of Agriculture in Kaduna over 3.2 billion naira loan which was disbursed to 10 vendors to buy tractors and other equipment.
The indictment followed the 2016 report of Auditor General of the Federation considered by Senate Public Accounts Committee with Senator Matthew Uhrogide as chairman.
According to report, three billion , six hundred million naira provided between 24th March 2015 and 17th November 2015 by the federal government through the Bank to 10 vendors selected by the Ministry of Agriculture to buy tractors and other equipment for allocation to end users could not be accounted for by the Bank’s management.
The loan was to last for four years and the beneficiaries were expected to make repayment through Service Provider Operators under a revolving fund arrangement with expected multiplication effect on the national Agricultural mechanization agenda.
In their written response, the Bank of Agriculture said that the programme was structured with a four year loan tenure commencing from the date of release of the equipment but since the equipment were not released on the same day, the expiry dates of the machinery loans also vary.
The Senate Committee did not accept the written explanation.
