UNDP commits $6m to 150 projects in Nigeria, says co-ordinator

The Global Environmental Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP) implemented by UNDP says it has supported 150 projects with more than $6 million in Nigeria.

The National Co-ordinator of GEF-SEP, Mrs. Ronke Olubamise, who disclosed this at a stakeholders’ workshop on the GEF-SGP country programmes strategy for the GEF operational Phase 7 in Abuja, said that the projects were implemented in 25 states from 2009 till date, adding that the projects were also co-financed with $6 million by non-governmental organisations and other donors.

“We have spent $6 million on the projects and got co-financing from NGOs that are implementing them in the communities and other donors; 25 states have benefited so far in Nigeria, ‘’ she said.

She listed some of the states that benefited in the projects, which include conservation of biodiversity, climate change, prevention of land degradation, persistent organic pollutant and protection of international waters as Benue, Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Kwara, Kogi, Osun, Kaduna, Katsina, Bauchi, Imo, Enugu, Anambra.

Olubamise said that SGP would still support projects in any of the five projects in 2020, adding that more than 500,000 poor rural dwellers have benefited directly from all its projects over the years.

She said that SDG had always aligned its priority projects with the Federal Government priority to get its support for smooth implementation.

The co-ordinator said that some of the challenges facing SGP were monitoring and evaluation, operational vehicles, shortage of staff, accommodation, partnerships, knowledge management and poor progress report from some organisations handling communities’ projects.

“Over 20 projects were stopped due to progress reports, some came late, and some were not well written, this is one of the challenges we are facing,’’ she said.