World Bank disburses N2.43 bn to 27 states

The World Bank has disbursed N2.43 billion ($16.2 million) to 27 states as part of its $250 million commitment to the third phase of Fadama Project, Bola Adubi, World Bank Senior Agricultural Specialist in charge of the project, has said.

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.

Speaking in Abuja on Thursday, Mr. Adubi said 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.

Due to the renewed focus of government on agriculture and to ensure poverty reduction, he said all the 36 states and the FCT had been mainstreamed into the programme.

Mr. Adubi said the main target of the programme was to sustainably increase the incomes of participating rural communities.

The National Projector Coordinator, Bukar Tijani, 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,” Mr. Tijani said.