Olusola Bello
The Presidency on Monday stated that six states would benefit from the agro processing, productivity, enhancement and livelihood improvement support project of the World Bank.
The Presidential Spokesman, Garba Shehu, in a statement, disclosed that under the external borrowing plan worth $4 billion to be sourced from multilateral institutions, the states to benefit from the project include Kogi, Kaduna, Kano, Cross River, Enugu, and Lagos under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) as the implementing ministry.
According to the Presidency, the major objective of the agro-processing project was to enhance the agricultural productivity of small and medium-scale farmers and to improve value addition along priority value chains in the participating states.
The statement revealed that no fewer than 29 states would also benefit from the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Arid Zone Landscape project.
The Agro-Climatic Resilience Project is expected to reduce natural resource management conflicts in dry and semi-arid ecosystems in Nigeria.
To be co-financed by the World Bank and European Investment Bank (EIB), the states to benefit have been listed as Akwa Ibom, Borno, Oyo, Sokoto, Kano, Katsina, Edo, Plateau, Abia, Nasarawa, Delta, Niger, Gombe, Imo, Enugu, Kogi, Anambra, Niger, Ebonyi, Cross River, Ondo, Kaduna, Kebbi, Jigawa, Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Benue, Yobe and Kwara.
“The World Bank is also funding the Livestock Productivity and Resilience project in no fewer than 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),” the statement read in part.
On its part, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) would finance the Value Chain Development Programme to be implemented in Anambra, Benue, Ebonyi, Niger, Ogun, Taraba, Nasarawa, Enugu, and Kogi States.
The Value Chain Development Programme is projected to empower 100,000 farmers, including over 6,000 and 3,000 processors and traders, respectively.