Abuja - The World Bank has disbursed $16.2 million to 27 states as part of its $250 million commitment to the third phase of Fadama Project, Dr Bola Adubi, World Bank Senior Agricultural Specialist in charge of the project, has said.
The implementation of Fadama 111 began in March this year and its expected to terminate in 2014.
It has a total package of $450 million, out of which $250 million will be made available by the International Development Association (IDA) World Bank Soft at 0.7 per cent interest.
The federal, states and local governments as well as the benefiting communities are expected to provide $200 million.
Adubi told newsmen at the weekend in Abuja that each of the 27 states received $600,000.
He said that the states could request for more funds after a satisfactory submission of a comprehensive statement of expenditure.
“The World Bank is strict on the proper utilisation of the fund in line with the stipulated guidelines; it is encouraging that beneficiary states have started disbursement to various communities,’’ he said.
He said owing to the renewed focus of government on agriculture and to ensure poverty reduction, all the 36 states and the FCT had been mainstreamed into the programme.
Adubi said that the main target of the programme was to sustainably increase the incomes of participating rural communities.
He said under Fadama 111, there would be increased agricultural productivity through efficient, effective and timely supply and provision of inputs to farmers, adding that appropriate technology transfer in various areas was imperative.
Malam Bukar Tijani, National Projector Coordinator, said the project had assumed a new dimension with disbursement by cheques to an authenticated account by the project team.
“The capacity of each participating communities have been built to open an operational account and we are still going further on capacity-building on how best they can have group financial management,’’ he said.
He added that anti-fraud authorities like EFCC, ICPC, and the police had been involved to stem fraudulent activities.
Tijani said the mid-term review of Fadama II showed that the target of increasing income of users by 22 per cent had been surpassed, hitting 28.9 per cent by the end of 2007.
He said that the second phase also expanded the income and wealth of more than 5.3 million households in 18 states with the creation of more than 126,000 permanent jobs and additional income of more than $40.8 million for the 12 participating states.
The coordinator said that the current phase was targeted at 2.2 million farm families across the country with 15 persons per farm family, to benefit an overall 16 million people.
|
