Press release number: IFAD 46/01

Abuja, 11 December 2001 – At the invitation of HE Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, yesterday Mr. Lennart Båge, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), arrived in Abuja for a four-day official visit to Nigeria.

IFAD President Båge, who in many international fora called for increased support from the International community for the poorest rural populations, particularly praised the commitment of the newly established government of Nigeria in pursuing economic and social reforms aiming at reducing poverty by revitalizing the agricultural sector. Furthermore, in line with IFAD’s strategy to efficiently combat hunger and poverty, Nigeria’s recent policy also shows efforts to gear the funds recovered through debt relief into income-generating activities and poverty reduction plans.

On his first day in Abuja, this morning Mr Båge joined President Obasanjo at the Presidential Villa to participate to the launching ceremony of the Nigeria’s Rural Development Strategy, which has been developed over the past 12 months with the support of the Fund together with the World Bank, the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom (DFID), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In the afternoon, Mr. Lennart Båge met HE Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Federal Minister of Finance of Nigeria, to sign a USD 29.9 million loan agreement extended by IFAD to the Federal Republic of Nigeria on highly concessional terms^*. The loan will co-finance the Community-Based Agricultural and Rural Development Programme, a USD 68.5 worth IFAD-initiated programme to be implemented in the eight northern Nigerian states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe and Borno.

The programme will support the Government’s efforts to address rural poverty by identifying the most deprived people and empowering them to effectively participate in development activities. The overall goal is to improve the livelihoods and living conditions of poor rural communities in the programme area, with special emphasis on women and other vulnerable groups. This goal will be pursued by using federal, state and local government, community and IFAD resources in at least 234 villages areas in up to the 8 Northern states of Nigeria. In line with the on-going decentralization process in Nigeria, the programme will particularly strengthen the local governments and village-level communities.

The local partners of the Community-Based Agricultural and Rural Development Programme will participate through five main types of activities: community awareness; empowerment and capacity building; sustainable agricultural development; rural microenterprise and financial support services; and village-level community infrastructure.

In addition to the loan, IFAD is providing a USD 100,000 grant to assist the Federal Republic of Nigeria in undertaking a number of start-up activities relevant to the Programme. Another grant has been extended to the Nigerian Integrated Rural Accelerate development Organization (NIRADO), a domestic NGO whose main function, extended over a period of 6 months, will be to identify and mobilize the most vulnerable members of the communities of the project areas and train them in participatory, demand-driven approaches to enable their effective participation in the Fund’s Community-based Rural and Agricultural Development Programme.

Since 1985 to date, IFAD has financed five projects in Nigeria, for a total loan commitment of about USD 102 million. All projects have focused on the needs of poor rural communities, smallholder farmers, artisanal fishermen, the rural landless and targeted women in particular. IFAD’s operations in the country have successfully contributed to commodity development and food security, technology generation and transfers, new approaches to rural and community development, soil conservation and environmental management and the provision of agricultural support services.

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IFAD is a specialised agency of the United Nations with the specific mandate of combating hunger and poverty in the most disadvantaged regions of the world. Since 1978 IFAD has financed 584 projects in 114 recipient countries and in the West Bank and Gaza for a total commitment of approximately USD 7.2 billion in loans and grants. Through these projects, about 250 million rural people have had a chance to move out of poverty.

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* IFAD makes the greater part of its resources available to low-income countries on very favourable terms, with up to 40 years for repayment and including a grace period of up to ten years and a service charge of 0.75% per year.