IFAD Invests $22bn In Nigerian Agric Sector In 44 Years
International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) has invested $23.2billion in Nigeria’s agricultural sector between 1978 and 2022.
It noted that the Special Agro-Industrial Processing zone (SAPZ) to be implemented in Kano and Ogun state would soon commence.
Its Country Director, Dede Ekoue noted that IFAD currently fund 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 Programme (LIFE-ND) in the Niger Delta region as well as the Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Program (CASP) in the North to the tune of $459million.
She explained in Abuja at a three-day Financial Management and Procurement Workshop for the Federal Government’s IFAD projects.
Ekoue explained that the donor agency had provided $23.2billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached about 518 million people.
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.
The country director added 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.
Also, the Director Project Coordination Unit (PCU), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Engr Ularamu Ubandoma said that the IFAD-supported projects had massively contributed to improving the livelihood of the rural population in the country.
He added that it was essential to develop game-changing strategies for deep transformations of procurement and financial management of all FG/IFAD projects in the country.
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