FG, States, World Bank Agree to $700m Support to Boost Rural Agriculture, Access Roads, Others

James Emejo in Abuja

The federal government and the World Bank have reached an agreement to commit a total sum of $700 million to the scaling up of the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) to address emerging challenges in rural agriculture.

RAAMP is a third-generation project aimed to strengthen the institutional and financing base for sustainable management of state and rural network.

However, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, disclosed that the project had been reviewed to include a federal component to address challenges that the states might not prioritise, but which remained key to achieving food security.

Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja at the weekend, Abdullahi said the RAAMP scale-up will include a $500 million funding from the World Bank and a counterpart fund of $200 million from both the state and the federal governments.

He said the scale-up phase of the project had been designed to also institutionalise the idea of developing rural roads in the country.

The minister said, “We believe if this is done, it will create new development domains and establish new corridors while also developing agricultural clusters that will support our economic diversification drive and provide a new road path through which raw materials and food for consumption and raw material for agro-industry can be used.

“Our belief is that if we are developing clusters of production, we are putting in the money, we are investing, and after investing and there is production, but rural access, marketing becomes a problem.

“So, we believe the federal component will allow us to look at these areas where it is not much of a priority to states, because every state has its own priority, and sometimes the priority they have, given the scale of funds, may not allow them to be able to do these interventions.”

Abdullahi added, “The loss will count against the country because when there is food insecurity, it is the country that entirely suffers the impact.

“So, this federal component will enable us to intervene in selected and strategic locations where there are massive agricultural production activities requiring that we intervene to allow evacuation of foods and at the same time promote marketing of these products.”

He said the project was being implemented in 19 states through strong collaboration with the World Bank, adding that almost all the states of the federation are asking for on-boarding to also benefit from the massive success, which the initiative had delivered so far.

According to the minister, “But as part of the review, all parties are in agreement that we must include sustainability elements going forward. While it is agreed that we are going to scale up RAAMP, we must include sustainability elements.

“And the two instruments that have been put in place here is that all states that are implementing or are willing to implement this project must have to establish rural access authority.”

He said the idea was to have a formal institution that would take up the maintenance of the rural roads, which used to be maintained by the local governments.

The minister stated, “At the same time, when you create these agencies, how do you fund them? So states are also enjoined to establish what is called a state road fund, which will be part of the established legislation.

“And let me also report that out of the 19 states, 16 states have already passed laws establishing their state’s rural access road authorities alongside the state road fund. I think this is a very commendable success.

“Let me add here that it goes back to the level of leadership the president is promoting in terms of collaboration with the sub-nationals.

“And we are enjoined to increase more collaboration with them in a very transparent, accountable, but trustworthy, manner. I think the result of all of this endeavour is what we are seeing here.”

Abdullahi also said, “In our quest to also promote the role of rural roads in delivering our own mandate, you cannot deliver the mandate of food security when you have not tackled the aspect of how this food will be evacuated from areas of production to other areas of consumption, which is mostly not the same.”

The minister lamented that 80 per cent of about 200,000 rural roads in the country were currently in deplorable conditions, making access and movement of food production difficult.

Earlier, National Coordinator of RAAMP, Dr. Aminu Bodinga, said the project sought to improve rural routes and support the improvement of agricultural marketing.

The World Bank agreed to support the ministry in its quest for food security through a facility currently ongoing.

He said the project was focusing more on President Bola Tinubu’s quest for food security in the country, and the important role rural roads were going to play in supporting the initiative of the federal government.