Kebbi State Government has approved the immediate payment of N500 million counterpart funds for the implementation of rural road projects under the World Bank-assisted Rural Access Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) and United States African Development Foundation (USADF) programmes in the state.
The Chief Press Secretary to the State Governor, Alhaji Muazu Dakingari, disclosed this in a statement issued on Sunday.
The governor’s aide indicated that the objective of approving the fund was to boost agricultural activities and ease transportation of agricultural produce from the rural communities to various markets in the state.
According to the statement, the RAAMP has more than N300 million while United States African Development Foundation has more than 500,000 US Dollars.
Dakingari stated that the RAAMP project would cover rural access roads in the state while USADF would support rice farmers, milk processors and makers of groundnut cake known as (Kuli-Kuli).”
The World Bank stated that the development objective of the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project for Nigeria are to improve transport conditions and sustain access to the rural population; enhance agricultural marketing potentials through rehabilitating, installation and maintenance of key rural infrastructure in selected Nigerian states.
The USADF is an independent U.S. Government agency established by Congress to support African-owned enterprises which improve lives in poor and vulnerable communities in Africa.
The agency’s assistance in Africa is an investment in local economic development for peace and security today and prosperous U.S. trading partners tomorrow.
It invests directly in community enterprises, providing seed capital and local technical support to early stage agriculture, off-grid energy and youth-led enterprises in Africa.
Available information on the agency’s intervention in the continent showed that last year, its grant assistance generated $100 million in new local economic activities in poor and vulnerable communities across Africa.