The International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD) Nigeria Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP) has potential of impacting targeted Nigerian beneficiaries.
The Programme Manager of the Abia State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), Chief Israel Amanze, stated this during the COSOP Regional Technical Consultations with 60 stakeholders in agriculture from Abia, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, held in Umuahia, Abia State.
Amanze described the COSOP as a well-thought-out initiative with positive potential to impact on the lives and well-being of the people, saying the programme has come to assist the beneficiaries by empowering them, especially the locals using the bottom-up approach.”
According to the Abia State Coordinator, Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Project (LIFE-ND), Dr. Uchenna Onyeizu, “COSOP is a concise cooperation strategy between IFAD and a member country, which identifies the key objectives and development results to be pursued during a timeframe of five to nine years. It is designed in close cooperation with the government and other stakeholders to ensure national ownership.”
Onyeizu added that the IFAD Consultants would interact with the selected stakeholders from the three states to articulate areas of focus and the modalities, which would thereafter be harmonised with those articulated by five other zones in the country where the consultations were ongoing simultaneously. This, he said, will be submitted to IFAD for approval as COSOP policy working document/ guidelines.
The five-year COSOP would last from 2024 – 2029 in the Niger Delta states where the Life-ND was implemented.
