FG Lists 18 States to Benefit from $500 million World Bank Funds

18 states in Nigeria will benefit from the $ 500 million World Bank-financed project, the Federal Government has revealed.

The disclosure was made by the National Coordinator of Rural Access and Mobility Project, RAMP, Ularamu Ubandoma, at the unveiling of selected participants in the states in a meeting with the development partners in Abuja on Friday.

He said the states will join the already benefiting ones to share from the $500 million fund, a project under the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project, RAAMP3.

He said, “The whole essence of the project sponsored by the World Bank, French Development Bank and Africa Development Bank is to provide suitable road network for rural farmers to convey their farm produce to the market to avoid losses.

“What we are doing here today is a meeting with new RAAMP states. New RAAMP is rural access and agricultural marketing and we have about 18 states that have been selected to participate in this new project all over the country.

“In the North-east, we have Borno, Bauchi and Taraba. In North-central, we have Plateau, Benue, Kogi and Kwara. In North- west, we have Kano, Kastina, Sokoto and Kebbi. In South-east, we have Abia and Anambra.

In South-south, we have Cross River and Akwa Ibom. In South-west, we have Ogun, Oyo and Ondo States. These are states that emerged from the six geopolitical zones.” Mr. Ubandoma said the new RAAMP3 will be a ”little different from the usual RAMP1 and 2, as various projects, that is almost 100 percent completed, have been implemented in seven states.”

He also said the only difference is that ”they will be targeting RAAMP3 in line with President Buhari’s policy on agricultural transformation.”

“The policy is implemented through the Green Agricultural Alternative under the leadership of the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh.

The thinking now is zero rejection of our agricultural produce at the international markets,” he said. He further explained that the third phase of the RAAMP3 was to improve rural access and agricultural marketing in the selected participating states, whilst enhancing the sustainability of the rural and state road network.

“We are going to target markets and the value chains by adding value to our agricultural produce right from production level. We will be looking at storage and processes. We want to know how these products can get to different levels of markets. We are trying to shift from the usual market not considering the rural people.”