About 38,000 Nigerians including women and youths from oil producing countries will benefit from a $60 million International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) aid project.
The National Coordinator of the project which is also tagged, FGN / NDDC / IFAD Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises-Niger Delta (LIFE-ND), Engineer Abiodun F. Sanni, who disclosed this at a media roundtable held on Friday in Port Harcourt, disclosed that the project consists of nine oil producing countries according to the Niger Delta Development Commission.
These states include Abia, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross-River, Akwa-Ibom, Edo, Delta, Ondo and Imo States.
But he regretted that out of the nine states, three including Imo, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, did not benefit due to the failure of the NNDC to provide $30 million in counterpart funding as agreed earlier.
The point of the media roundtable, Sanni told us, is to bring the activities and achievements of the project to the attention of the general public. He said that despite the mileage and the number of households affected by the project, the level of publicity, advocacy and awareness has remained low in the past.
According to him, 10 local government areas were selected by each state government for women and youth empowerment.
“Meanwhile, in order for the community to be registered, the national coordinator considers that they must be harmonious, agrarian, rural and have a lot of land for the project.
Acknowledging that other countries of the federation also need the same intervention, Sanni stated that the project can be expanded beyond the current scope if the funding agency can be large enough to increase the projected figures.
He explained that as of December 31, 2022, LIFE-ND has supported more than 700 incubators and facilitated the establishment of 5,194 women and youth incubation companies.
In addition, a total of 6,964 incubators and incubation including women, youth and vulnerable people were trained on various topics of agricultural entrepreneurship and good agricultural practices covering the business cycle of the chosen business option.
Speaking about the contribution of the project to the country’s strategic goals of food security, household income and job creation, the coordinator confirmed that more than 450 metric tons of cassava, 219.74 metric tons of rice seeds, 230 metric tons of rice and 21.23 metric tons. tons of cocoa production has been recorded.
Other contributions include 660 metric tons of broiler chicken production and 594.63 metric tons of fish production.
He added that the LIFE-ND project has successfully injected an estimated, gross revenue of over N1.8 billion into the country’s economy.
While more than 6,964 small farmers have been reached by December 2022, Sanni estimates that 13,000 people will benefit this year.
“With this level of outreach, LIFE-ND will contribute to Nigeria’s strategic goal of food security through its contribution to national food security and the national economy”, he said.