FG Begins Payment to Agro-dealers After FACTSHEET Report on $134M AfDB Agric Programme
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the at the National Agricultural Growth Scheme – Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP) have resumed payments to Nigerian agro-input suppliers for their over one year due payments after FACTSHEET exclusive report (https://factsheet.ng/exclusive-fraud-rocks-afdb-funded-134-million-agric-programme-nags-ap/) on the $134 million African Development Bank (AfDB) funded agriculture project.
FACTSHEET reported that despite the release of the funds by the AfDB, the NAGS-AP programme led by Mr. Ishaku Ardo Buba had continued owing the agro-input dealers over one year after they supplied benefitting Nigerian farmer input for the expansion of production of select staple crops across Nigeria.
Reacting to the FACTSHEET report, the National President of the Nigeria Agro-Input Dealers Association (NAIDA), Mallam Kabir Umar Fara, who had earlier jointly written letters demanding the payments to the NAGS-AP National Programme Coordinator, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security and the Minister of Finance denied allegations of fraud in the disbursement of payments to NAIDA members . He however, admitted that there were mere “delays” in the payment process.
However, sources at the headquarters of NAGS-AP and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in Abuja told FACTSHEET that the agency went into frantic mode after the report.
NAGS-AP Begins Payment to Agro-dealers
On Friday, September 19, 2025, four days after the FACTSHEET report, two sources from NAGS-AP programme headquarters reached out to our reporter to confirm that the ministry and other relevant government agencies have started the payment process through the Bank of Agriculture (BOA).
After the FACTSHEET exclusive report, the NAGS-AP project leadership immediately directed all affected agro-dealers affected in Nigeria to open an account with the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), notifying them that the government that the government would no longer pay them through their initial business account with the government.
The agro-input dealers under the umbrella of Nigeria Agro-Input Dealers Association (NAIDA) supplied farm inputs including machineries and improved seedlings as part of the National Agricultural Growth Scheme – Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP), an agricultural improvement programme funded in select African countries.
The African Development Bank (AfDB)-funded programme is part of a wider food security programme for major African countries. The programme have been successfully implemented in Kenya, Ethiopia, Guinea, Senegal, Togo, Mali, Madagascar, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique, and The Gambia.
The AfDB extended a $134million grant to Nigeria for the programme to expand the production of major staples including rice, wheat, maize sorghum, soybean, and cassava among other selected crops.
However, after the 2023/2024 farming season programme the government started to default in payment which according to both farmers and agro-dealers nearly derailed the programme.
Some of the affected agro-dealers in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Nasarawa and Ebonyi states that spoke to FACTSHEET after receiving their payments expressed profound happiness, noting that they had almost given up hope on the programme.
