The
World Bank has set aside $520 million for rural roads infrastructure across
selected states in the country.
This was
disclosed by the World Bank Country Director for Rural Access And Agricultural
Marketing Project (RAAMP), Tunji Ahmed during a visit to Kwara State governor,
Abdulfatah Ahmed at the government house in Ilorin.
Ahmed said
the project was sponsored by the World Bank, French Development Bank and Africa
Development Bank to provide suitable road network for rural farmers to convey
their farm produce to the market and avoid losses arising from wastages during
transportation.
He said the
project will be implemented as soon as the World Bank approves the project and
Federal Government reaches a financial agreement with the World Bank.
“We know that
farmers lost up to 25% of their products because of lack of access to the
market. This project is suspected to be taken to the World Bank Board by May
2018 and as soon as the World Bank Board approves the project, there will be a
financial agreement between the World Bank and the Federal Government of
Nigeria.
“There will
be a subsidiary agreement between the Federal Government and the state and this
is when the project implementation will start.
Different
states across the country numbering 23 applied for the loan programme in 2018
and the World body is presently supporting 10 states with $520million.
The World
Bank Country Director noted that 25per cent of farm produce are lost as a
result of lack of access to markets occasioned by bad roads, adding that RAAMP
would improve rural access, agricultural marketing and open up rural areas in
the selected participating states.
Responding,
the Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed identified lack of good road network
as an impediment to the movement of farm produce to the market for final
consumers, thereby leading to wastages.
The governor
said the decision by the state government to present the proposal for the World
Bank’s rural access and agricultural marketing project was to create
connectivity in moving farm produce to the market, promising that the state
government has made provision for counterpart fund to enable it to access the
facility.
Source: ChannelsTV
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