World Bank Approves $150 million Credit For Agric Development In Nigeria

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The World Bank has approved an International Development Agency (IDA)  $150 million credit for  Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP) in five states across Nigeria.

The Bank which made the disclosure today said the project is targeting at strengthening agricultural production systems and facilitate access to markets for targeted value chains among small and medium scale commercial farmers in the five participating states of Cross River , Enugu , Lagos , Kaduna , and Kano .

It said in a statement that the project with a five-year implementation plan will focus on value chains such as oil palm, cocoa, fruit trees, poultry, aquaculture and dairy, with maize and rice as staples to address the food crisis. The World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Mr. Onno Ruhl explained that the project will also finance Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, technical assistance and selected studies on relevant models of commercial agriculture as well as irrigation Dr. Abba Ruma, Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture while acknowledging the World Bank’s gesture, however, said the pilot project will be scaled-up to cover the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) using the Government initiative on Commercial Agriculture Development Programme (CADP)..

“We thank the World Bank for the support and positive response to our request for assistance in this sector. The CADP has two components: Agricultural Production and Commercialization and Rural Infrastructure” , Ruma said Meanwhile, the Federal Government has adopted the CADP model for the implementation of a National Commercial Agriculture Programme (CAP) which will be implemented in all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory . The programme will start with 18 states (including the five CADP states) in the first phase while the other states will join depending on their readiness for implementation. The CADP will be implemented within the framework of the Commercial Agriculture Programme (CAP) using the same approach and management team