Nigeria’s rice, cassava sub-sectors receive $8.06m UNDP, NIRSAL boost
Temitayo Ayetoto is Businessamlive Reporter.
You can contact her on temitayo.ayetoto@businessamlive.com with stories and commentary.
Aliyu Abdulhameed, NIRSAL managing director at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the implementation of the pact over the weekend said the fund’s focus on ensuring capacity expansion within the rice and cassava value chain would be realised through the Nigerian Agribusiness Supplier Development Project, an agency with the responsibility to eliminate supply chain bottlenecks through efficient linkage between production and processing actors.
NIRSAL, he said, would provide a total of $1,558,500 funding for implementation, with $558,500 of it utilized under its technical assistance pillar for capacity building of the beneficiaries.
He added that $1 million would be spent on non-expendable credit under the Central Bank of Nigeria Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and other financing interventions.
“This project will directly impact over 10,000 smallholder farmers, and over 50,000 lives annually and consolidate capacity of processors across Nigeria through a better and structured logistics arrangement with primary producers,” he said.
Hassan Bukar, Permanent Secretary, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said the implementation of the program was in tandem with the government’s diversification effort in agriculture.