Following the controversy trailing an early claim by the Ministry of Agriculture that it will expend the sum of N60 billion to purchase cell phones for farmers, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina has clarified the position of the apex government saying that no such amount was ever earmarked for such a project.

At the close of last year the permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of agriculture, Ibukun Odusote had stated that the government is planning to buy 10 million telephone handsets worth about N60 billion from China and the US for free distribution to rural farmers across the country.

Odusote was quoted as saying: "We are talking about 10 million handsets, each handset would be costing, may be N6000 or N4000 because it is in large number. We are not going to buy in pieces like that. We will buy directly from the manufacturing companies. We have agreement with some organisations in China and some in the United States, they are going to provide all these handsets for us because they are also interested in investing in the Agricultural sector in Nigeria. So you have the idea and estimate of the cost."

More to follow...