The Senate has approved the Conference Committee report on the Bill titled “A Bill for an Act to Amend the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund Act, 2016”. Presenting the report at the plenary session of Wednesday, 10thMay 2017, Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu (APC: Nasarawa) stated that the Bill seeks to expand the reach of the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund to cover farmers interests; increase the amount paid into the fund; raise the commitment of the Federal Government and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) towards the scheme and increase the maximum amount needed to attract a waiver of security requirement for credit granted.
Sen. Adamu also mentioned that the Conference Committee (composed of both chambers of the National Assembly) was set up to address the concerns raised by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo who had withheld his assent on the Bill in February, 2017. The Acting President had raised objections over the Bill’s passage due to certain inconsistencies in its board composition, funding arrangement, limitation of liability of funds and proposal to increase the level of uncollaterized loans from N5,000 to N25,000. However, the Chairman was optimistic that the revised Bill would obtain the President’s consent; having now addressed these issues.
