Arthur Eriye
The United Kingdom (UK) Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has announced its readiness to inject £204 million in private sector finance and investment to boost growth is Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
The Country Representative for Propcom+, a programme funded by the UK FCDO, Mrs. Ode Adiya, disclosed this in Katsina during a stakeholders’ meeting.
According to her, Propcom+ is UK Aid’s eight-year climate-resilient agricultural market development programme.
It aims to support economic growth for smallholders and SMEs in conflict- and climate-affected regions.
“We’re improving the resilience of smallholders and small-scale entrepreneurs to climate change while increasing productivity and incomes, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and maintaining natural ecosystems.
“The programme, which runs from 2023 to 2030, supports climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture and forestry that benefits people, the climate and nature. It also aims to transform Nigeria’s rural economy by addressing environmental, social and economic challenges in the country’s food and land-use system,” Adiya said.
She explained that the programme will achieve this by increasing productivity, improving nutrition and food security, enhancing climate resilience, reducing emissions, and protecting nature.
“It will also help tackle some of Nigeria’s underlying drivers of conflict and insecurity, supporting sustainable, pro-poor, climate-resilient growth in selected rural markets. We work as a ‘market facilitator’, identifying constraints in market systems and enabling changes that help rural markets benefit poor and climate-vulnerable smallholders and entrepreneurs.
“Propcom+ aims to increase the incomes and climate resilience of 3.79 million poor and vulnerable Nigerians, 50 per cent of whom will be women. The programme aims to support over four million people in adopting sustainable agricultural practices while about £95 million was earmarked for the programme,” she added.
She revealed that the programme is already active in Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Bauchi, Plateau, Gombe and Adamawa. Katsina has just been approved as a beneficiary.
Adiya said this development followed a meeting between Governor Dikko Radda and the FCDO, where they discussed the programme’s implementation in Katsina.
“Today, we had a very good meeting with farmers, businessmen, processors, academics, women’s groups and cooperatives. They support the decision to implement the programme in Katsina. In the coming days, we’ll meet government officials to better understand the challenges and how we can address them,” Adiya stated.
