The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), disbursed 70 trucks carrying 42,000 bags of fertilizers to farmers in Kwara State.
Each farmer is entitled to at least three bags, said the Kwara State Governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Community Development, Lawal Olohungbebe.
“This is a federal government intervention that complements what the state government has already done on three different occasions.
“Here we have 50 trucks of NPK fertilisers and 20 trucks of Urea fertilisers, making 70 trucks altogether, donated by the Central Bank of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to the people of Kwara State
“This would be a continuous exercise. At the state level, we have distributed fertilisers and other farm inputs in three batches. But this one is coming from the federal government. The federal government has given it to the state free of charge, and we are giving it to real farmers free of charge, too,” he said.
Olohungbebe added that the free distribution would be handled by a fertiliser distribution committee in 16 local government areas.
Members of the committee include local government development officers, traditional and community leaders, community-based organisations, representatives of CAN and Jama’atu Nasrul Islam, civil society organisations, people living with disability and farmers, amongst others.
Assuring a seamless and transparent distribution process, Olohungbebe said “We assure the federal government that these items would get to the grassroots. In Kwara, we don’t joke with the grassroots because we are running a community-based government”.