World Bank invests $400mn in Nigeria’s agric development

World Bank says its investments in the development of Nigerian agriculture currently stand at about $400 million. The bank also says going forward, it plans to commit another $200 million in the nation’s livestock development, with yet another $200 million for a staple crop processing zone project. Shehu Salau, an official of the bank, disclosed this in Abuja Monday at the opening session of the regional wrapup meeting of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) Implementation Support Mission.

“Our portfolio in Nigeria is about $400 million, but we have an engagement to scale up the support, we have a $200 million staple crop processing zone project, we also have about $200 million livestock project,” he said. According to Salau, the World Bank prioritised agriculture and energy in the African continent due to the fact that Africa is largely agrarian.

“The reason for the bank’s prioritisation of agriculture and energy in Africa,” Salau explained, “stems from the fact that the continent is largely agrarian, and the bank sees a window to push investments to support the Nigerian government and the African continent to achieve economic development objectives through the agricultural sector.” When asked if the World Bank w ill continue the WAAPP-Nigeria programme, which would be rounding off this year, Salau said the government of Nigeria had not yet declared interest in continuing with the programme and that was why the World Bank might not continue with the programme in Nigeria.

“The World Bank works with the government and if the bank does not receive a request from the government to continue the project, the bank will comply. As I speak now, the bank is yet to receive any official communication from the government of Nigeria to continue the programme,” he said. Also speaking, Tchambakou Ayassor, the ECOWAS commissioner for agriculture, environment and water resources, said the aim of the WAAPP programme in West Africa was to achieve food security in the region.

“We are promising that the whole region will get together to continue working on the improvement of agricultural productivity. The main objective of ECOWAS in Nigeria is mainly to get food security for all the regions,” he noted. While delivering his address, the National Project Coordinator of WAAPP-Nigeria, James Apochi, recalled that WAAPP-Nigeria has facilitated farmers’ access to genetic materials, including crop seed and fingerlings. Apochi also said that the programme piloted new models of advisory services with the introduction of adoption of improved technologies, while importing technologies from the sub-region to help curtail crop wastages and post harvest losses.