Nigeria Tops Ifad Financing to West, Central Africa with N28bn Credit
- By Simeon Ogoegbulem
- Published April 28th, 2010
- News
- Unrated
NIGERIA has received the larger chunk of credit disbursed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad) for countries in both West and Central Africa, BusinessWorld Intelligence can now disclose. The funds from Ifad are meant for agricultural projects geared towards ensuring food security and poverty reduction.
Ifad has financed about nine programmes and projects in Nigeria since 1985, with a total loan commitment of $187.5 million (about N28.125 billion). The international agricultural finance agency says the amount accessed so far by the country represents nothing short of 40 per cent of the financial resources that the organization allocates to Western and Central Africa.
It is presupposed that programmes and projects already embarked upon and those already delivered would address the livelihood needs of poor rural people, including smallholders, women and small business owners, poor fishing communities, young people and landless people. Operations have contributed to generating and disseminating technology to increase incomes and family food security, while also introducing approaches for effective soil and water conservation and environmental management fostering demand-driven and participatory approaches to agricultural and rural support services as well as strengthening capacity-building and institutional capacities to ensure the sustainability of successful development approaches Ifad’s support to government’s poverty reduction programme in rural areas targets large numbers of smallholder farmers and is essentially people-centred. Also, it supports programmes and projects that work with communities and in which smallholder farmers are the key players and promotion of commodity-based interventions that provide technical and financial support along several value chains such as livestock products, rice and other cereals, roots and tubers, vegetables and agroforestry products.
Conditions attached to virtually all funds accessed by government from the agency points to core objectives which are to empower poor rural people, especially women, by increasing access to resources, infrastructure and services and to promote the management of land, water and common property by local communities to help overcome environmental degradation. Ifad supported programmes and projects address issues such as erosion and the loss of soil fertility, as well as coastal zone natural resource management just as it directs assistance towards empowering small-scale farmers, landless people and rural women to generate sustainable incomes.
Ifad has financed about nine programmes and projects in Nigeria since 1985, with a total loan commitment of $187.5 million (about N28.125 billion). The international agricultural finance agency says the amount accessed so far by the country represents nothing short of 40 per cent of the financial resources that the organization allocates to Western and Central Africa.
It is presupposed that programmes and projects already embarked upon and those already delivered would address the livelihood needs of poor rural people, including smallholders, women and small business owners, poor fishing communities, young people and landless people. Operations have contributed to generating and disseminating technology to increase incomes and family food security, while also introducing approaches for effective soil and water conservation and environmental management fostering demand-driven and participatory approaches to agricultural and rural support services as well as strengthening capacity-building and institutional capacities to ensure the sustainability of successful development approaches Ifad’s support to government’s poverty reduction programme in rural areas targets large numbers of smallholder farmers and is essentially people-centred. Also, it supports programmes and projects that work with communities and in which smallholder farmers are the key players and promotion of commodity-based interventions that provide technical and financial support along several value chains such as livestock products, rice and other cereals, roots and tubers, vegetables and agroforestry products.
Conditions attached to virtually all funds accessed by government from the agency points to core objectives which are to empower poor rural people, especially women, by increasing access to resources, infrastructure and services and to promote the management of land, water and common property by local communities to help overcome environmental degradation. Ifad supported programmes and projects address issues such as erosion and the loss of soil fertility, as well as coastal zone natural resource management just as it directs assistance towards empowering small-scale farmers, landless people and rural women to generate sustainable incomes.
