The Agro commodities Directorate of the All Progressive Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC PCC) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to allow the old and new notes to serve as legal tenders for a minimum of one year.
Disturbed by the growing difficulties being faced by farmers across the country as a result of naira scarcity, the directorate said the extension would help the majority of farmers in rural areas who are not likely to be operating bank accounts.
A statement in Abuja on Thursday jointly signed by the director and Secretary of the directorate, Alhaji Abubakar Udulu Bello and Comrade Retson Tedheke, lamented farmers are the worst hit by the new monetary policy.
Urging Buhari to extend the usage of the old naira notes for a minimum of one year, the campaign council maintained the naira redesign policy “is killing the fortune of farmers in rural Nigeria”.
Part of the statement reads: “The directorate urges President Muhammadu Buhari to extend the usage of the old Naira notes for a minimum of one year.
“This is a result of the scarcity of new notes in rural farming communities where farmers are forced to sell their produce far below the cost of production. This tends to erode all the successes in terms of prosperity that the Buhari Agriculture Revolution has brought to farmers”, the PCC stated.
The statement added that the development also portends a danger to the food security of the country.
According to the PCC, “once farmers are forced to sell at a loss due to new currency scarcity, they will not be able to recoup their investments. Alternatively, they will not be on their farms by the next planting season.
“It is in light of this that we are appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the CBN to allow the old and the new notes to be in use, for a minimum of one year, while we gradually withdraw the old notes from circulation once they get to the banks.”
The campaign council also encouraged the CBN to evolve a rural banking system that will promote cashless banking in rural communities.
The directorate expressed delight at Tinubu’s rural agricultural hub initiative, which it said would make rural Nigeria bankable, productive and developed
The directorate assured the party’s presidential flag bearer that farmers are behind his aspiration and ready to ensure his victory at the poll come February 25.
