FG to secure $500m World Bank loan for rural roads project

The Federal Government has secured a $500 million facility from the World Bank for the scale-up of the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) across states of the federation.

The federal and participating state governments are expected to pay a counterpart fund of $100 million to further increase the reach of the project.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, during a press conference in Abuja, stated that the loan facility was necessary given that 80 per cent of the 200,000 rural roads across the country are in a deplorable state.

He pointed out that the Federal Government’s counterpart funding will enable intervention in selected and strategic locations where there is massive agricultural production activity. This intervention will allow the evacuation of food and promote the marketing of these products.

Emphasizing the importance of rural roads, Abdullahi noted that agricultural marketing is a critical component in ensuring food security. He attributed rural-urban migration to poor agricultural marketing.

He explained that the project, previously known as the Rural Access Mobility Project (RAMP), has achieved a lot, which is why state governments are expressing interest in onboarding the project to benefit from the massive successes it has delivered.

The minister stated that going forward, both the federal and state governments have agreed to include sustainability elements. To ensure this, states willing to implement the project must establish a Rural Access Road Authority.

He stressed that the Rural Access Road Authority must ensure the roads are well maintained by passing legislation for the establishment of the State Road Fund. He disclosed that out of the 19 states participating in the implementation of the project, 16 have already passed laws establishing their state’s Rural Access Road Authority alongside the State Road Fund.

He said, “We are implementing the next phase, which is the scale-up phase. And I will say that this scale-up is intended to institutionalize the idea of developing rural Nigeria. Now, we believe if this is done, it will create new development domains and establish new corridors while also developing agricultural clusters that will support our economic diversification drive and provide a new growth path through which raw materials and food for consumption, as well as raw materials for agro-industries, will be promoted.”

The National Coordinator of RAAMP, Dr Aminu Mohammed, in his remarks, said the aim of the project was to scale up rural access roads as well as support the improvement of agricultural marketing.

He said the project is currently implemented in 19 states, and the Federal Government has applied to the World Bank for the scale-up of the project, stating that the bank has approved the loan in a bid to further improve food security in the country.