Nigeria Gets $300mn World Bank Loan To Boost Agriculture

The World Bank has approved a $300million credit to Nigeria’s government to fund the agriculture sector.
The two International Development Association (IDA) credits will fund the Third National Fadama Development Project (Fadama III) and the nation’s Agriculture Sector Development Policy Operation.

In a statement by the Bank, of the said amount, $200 million to be used for the Fadama III project will “support smallholder farmers, organized in clusters in six states, activities designed to increase their production of food staples, including cassava, rice, sorghum, and processing them for delivery.



The funds will also link the farmers to better-organized markets and to small and large-scale food processors.

“The Fadama Development Project is an innovative approach to leverage private sector investments and to establish business linkages between large investors and smallholder farmers,” said Jamal Saghir, World Bank

Director of Sustainable Development for the Africa Region.
“It will assist the Nigerian Government in its efforts to expand employment, raise household incomes and enhance skills and capacity” he added.

While the IDA credit of US$100 million will fund the sector’s Development Policy Operation which would include efforts to strengthen policies and capacity to raise yields, promote market access among farmers, and improve overall management of the country’s rapidly expanding agriculture industry.

“Nigeria has an enormous opportunity to promote a vibrant, competitive and technology-propelled agricultural sector, which today employs 70% of the population,” said Marie- Francoise Marie-Nelly, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria.

“This new project focuses on providing opportunity to Nigeria’s growing ranks of agribusiness entrepreneurs in a way that will generate higher incomes for farmers while also enhancing expansion in the industrial sector, ensuring food security and enhancing foreign exchange earnings.”