Oyo State Governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, has clarified that the N7.6 billion loan approved by the House of Assembly for the upgrading of two farm settlements in Akufo and Eruwa, to farm estates as a victory for the people of Oyo State in their pursuit of agricultural sustainability and economic emancipation.


The governor also made it clear that the loan was not a fresh one being sought by his government.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, indicates that Governor Makinde had, in May 2019 when he was still governor-elect approached the Oyo State High Court in Ibadan to get an injunction restraining immediate past administration from accessing and spending the loan few days to the end of its tenure.


Governor Makinde maintained that contrary to insinuations that he was obtaining an additional N7.6 billion loan after an initial approval for N10 billion loan facility for infrastructure development, the N7.6 billion loan had already been approved by the CBN before he got to office.

The governor stated that his administration had only approached the House of Assembly to seek approval to change the purpose of the loan facility, so that it could be put to better use in developing farm estates in Eruwa and Akufo farm settlements in the state in a pilot scheme to be used as a model for the state-wide farm estate initiative of the administration.


He noted that the apex bank had begun to deduct money from Oyo State’s Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations from source to repay the loan.


Governor Makinde explained that limiting the scope of the project to Akufo and Eruwa Farm Settlements, which were in the same federal constituency, was to allow for effective planning, monitoring, evaluation and coordination for the pilot scheme, adding that the project would extend to other settlements across the state.

On the issue of the N10 billion loan earlier approved by the House of Assembly in July this year, Governor Makinde said the loan meant for specific infrastructural development projects was still intact as it had not yet been accessed. 

” Once the Due Process Office is through with the approval process of hiring contractors for the earmarked projects, we will start accessing the loan to fund these projects”, he noted

Iyabo Adebisi

pub-5160901092443552

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *