By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said it had directly invested 459 million US dollars in Nigeria through domestic and international co-financing.
Ms Dede Ekoue, IFAD Nigeria Country Director said this at a-3 day Financial Management and Procurement Workshop for Federal Government of Nigeria/IFAD projects on Thursday in Abuja.
The workshop was organised by IFAD in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), Finance, Budget and National Planning with the support of the Country Programme Advisory Team (CPAT).
Participants were drawn from the LIFE-ND and VCDP national and state project’s management team from 15 states, representative of the IFAD country office, IFAD Financial Management Services Division (FMD), Procurement Team, the Federal Ministries of Finance and Agriculture and CPAT.
According to her, IFAD currently funds two effective projects in Nigeria which are Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) and the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise-Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) in the south.
“IFAD currently funds VCDP in the central part of Nigeria, LIFE-ND in the south, Special Agro-Processing Zones Programme in Kano and Ogun States expected to commence while Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme (CASP) in the north closed in March 2022.
“Its direct investment in Nigeria (loan and grant) through these programmes amount to US$459 million leveraging a total budget of one billion US dollars through domestic and international co-financing including the CASP project,”.
She said IFAD-VCDP was focusing on middle belt support the Nigeria government to enhance incomes and food security of poor rural women households engaged in the rice and cassava value chains by supporting them to increase productivity and meet quality standards of off takers.
Ekoue said it also linked the households to agro-processing firms and further supported them to adopt climate resilient practices.
According to her, VCDP beneficiaries were about 100,000, comprised of men and farmers and processors.
