IFAD invests $459million in Nigerian agricultural sector

By : Joke Falaju, Abuja

Date: 5 August 2022 3:46pm WAT

Aondohimba Abraham, a millet farmer poses for a photo in his farm after abandoning his main farm due to attacks on farmers in Eggon, Nasarawa State Nigeria on August 11, 2021.Many farmers in rural areas in Abuja, Nasarawa, Benue and Jos have been deprived of access to their farmlands for fear being kidnapped or killed by herders. - Threatened by insecurity, farmers in Nigeria's farm belt are increasingly abandoning their land, leading to supply problems and adding to the already high cost of food in Africa's most populous country. Nigeria's Middle Belt and northwestern states have for years been caught in violence between normadic herdsman and farmers as climate change intensifies rivalries over water and land. But that violence has spiralled into security crisis tit-for-tat attacks and expanded into widespread kidnapping, cattle theft and criminal banditary. (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP)

Trains officers on financial management

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said it has directly invested $459million in Nigeria’s Agricultural sector through domestic and international co-financings

IFAD Country Director Ms Dede Ekoue disclosed this yesterday in Abuja during a 3-day Financial Management and Procurement Workshop for the Federal government IFAD projects.

She disclosed that the donor agency is currently funding two major projects in the country including the Value Chain Development Program (VCDP) in the central part of Nigeria and the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise Program (LIFE-ND) in the Niger Delta region as well as the Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Program (CASP) in the North.

Ekoue stated that the Special Agro-Industrial Processing zone (SAPZ) to be implemented in Kano and Ogun state will soon commence.

She stressed that the aim of the workshop was to further scale up the impact of the project on smallholder farmers through improving procurement and financial management practices in the implementation of the two major projects under the FGN/IFAD Cooperation that is VCDP and Life-ND.

She stated that the workshop would further boost participants’ knowledge of financial management, and improve the timely development of project procurement adding that an action plan to enhance projects’ financial management will also be developed in line with recommendations of supervision and support mission.

The Director Project Coordination Unit (PCU) Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Engr Ularamu Ubandoma noted that the IFAD-supported projects have massively contributed to improving the livelihood of the rural population in the country.

He added that to enhance the achievement of the developmental objective of the projects while keeping in mind ‘Value for money, it was essential to develop game-changing strategies for a deep transformation of procurement and financial management of all FG/IFAD projects in the country.