The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday endorsed $152.12 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for the agricultural sector.
This was disclosed by Akinwunmi Adesina, the minister of agriculture and rural development, while briefing newsmen after the weekly FEC meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House, Abuja.
He said that the loan from AfDB will be used to develop 14 staple crops processing zones in seven states and 27 local government areas.
The loan, Adesina said, is provided at 1.5 percent interest rate and is repayable within a period of over 22 years and is strategic for the modernisation of agriculture and encourages investments.
He said the loan will be used to develop rice, sorghum and cassava in commercial production and “it will be used to support private sector processing and value addition”.
He listed the zones to be focused on to include Adani-Omo in Ebonyi and Enugu State for rice and cassava; Bida and Badegi for rice; Kano and Jigawa for rice, tomato and sorghum; Kebbi, Sokoto for rice and sorghum.
The seven states involved in the first phase are Anambra, Enugu, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Niger and Sokoto.
“The facility will support infrastructure development, production facility, irrigation infrastructure, social infrastructure in particular, rural roads, potable water, sanitation, health care.
“The loan will also be used for agro-processing development, value addition, market information system for farmers in those areas. Expand access to financial service and crops insurance”, the minister said.
The minister who briefed newsmen alongside Labaran Maku, the minister of information, also stated that there are 27 LGAs that are covered under this very investments and it has been developed in close partnership with all the state governors and community involvement.
“There will be 120,000 jobs that will be created by the development of the staple crops which will include 36,000 women and 200,000 youths who are going to participate in the initiative.
“It will allow us to add 20 million metric tons of rice, cassava and sorghum into domestic food supply.
“There will be 17 water control structure to be rehabilitated, 1,300 irrigation canals will be rehabilitated, 1,300 kilometres of all weather roads will be rehabilitated, there will be 1007 tube wells to be constructed and in total 68,000 hectares of rice, cassava and sorghum will be put under commercial production”.
He added that access to insurance by farmers in the seven states will increase from 9 percent to 80 percent while the number of farmers’ organisations obtaining loans from banks and other micro finance institutions will rise from 22 percent to 80 percent.
He announced that the staple crops processing zones are being developed in conjunction with the United Nations’ Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).
According to the minister, the approval of the loan by the AfDB is as a result of the progress Nigeria has made in the sector and “we promised that we will add 20 million metric tons of food to our domestic food supply by 2015. As of now we have done 15 million metric tons”.
He added that “despite the progress made so far, there are a number of challenges that we have seen in the rural areas, one of those is the low level of agro processing.
