World Bank disburses N787m to Borno farmers

The World Bank Insurgency Relief Fund (WBIRF), Tuesday, disbursed N787 million to four affected farming communities in Borno State, for investments in “agricultural and livestock production” by farmers to sustain their incomes and national food security in North East sub-region of the country.

  The development may have also come as a relief to the farmers as insurgency affected farming communities located in 15 Local Government Areas of the state, including the Lake Chad Basin areas of Marte and Kala/Balge.

  Presenting the cheques Tuesday at the Musa Usman Secretariat complex, Maiduguri, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Hajiya Inna Galadima warned the affected farmers not to misuse WBIRF.

  She urged: “I urge all the benefitting communities “to make good use of this funds by investing it in farming activities, so that your incomes and food sustainability could be increased and sustained, despite the security challenges you had been facing for the last five or six years in Borno State,” stressing that employing the funds for the purpose intended is the only way to sustain the World Bank assisted programme.

  Inna explained that prudent use of the resources would engender more credibility and assistance from donor agencies, enhancing resource flow that would promote agriculture in Borno State.

  She further disclosed that the state government was ready for regular payments of counterpart funds for all partnership programmes.

  “The state government would look into the issue of overwithdrawal of funds meant for Borno by other benefiting states through the NationalFadama Coordination Office last year,” assured Inna.

  Earlier, the Borno State Coordinator of the Fadama III project, Alhaji Mohammed Sabo Tijjani, said that the scheme was a tripartite project of the World Bank, federal and the state governments to stimulate agriculture growth of peasant farmers.

  He said the state government had got $200,000.00 (N39 million) for disbursement under the WBIRF.

  The insurgency relief fund beneficiaries included Shokwari, Masha-mari, Dusuman and Kirbiri Fadama Community Associations in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) and Jere councils of the state.