Agriculture

FG to Access $700m for Agro-Industrial Processing

By Web News 626

The Federal government says it will access about 700m Dollars facility to establish Agro Industrial Processing Zones in six states to reduce unemployment and Insecurity in the Country.

Engr, Maruf Ajenifuja of the Project Coordinating Units ,of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development made the disclosure while speaking with Journalists during a Pre appraisal visit by the team to the Protect site in Kwara state.

According to him about 500m Dollars will be sourced from African Development Bank,and 200m Dollars from International Funds for Agriculture Development by the Federal government on behalf of the states.

Engr, Ajenifuja explained that the purpose of the established of the Agro Industrial Processing zone is to enable farmers add value to their produce to make them marketable.

The acting country Director of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) Dr, Patric Habamenshi said the idea of the project is to give farmers the opportunity to increase their income.

Earlier in his address, the Technical Assistant to Kwara state governor on Agriculture, Abdulquawiy Olododo said the state government choose to invest in livestock production based on it’s comparative advantage to other areas of Agriculture.

Ali Rabiu

 

 

Politics

BREAKING: Adesina Re-elected AfDB President

By Web News 572

Nigeria’s Akinwumi Adesina has been re-elected as the President of the African Development Bank President for a second five-year term.

The election took place electronically on Thursday at the virtual annual general meeting of the bank.

Adesina’s reappointment on Thursday at the helm of the 56-year-old bank is considered a formality as he is the sole candidate, Lespanafricaines reports.

The head of the African bank had appealed on Wednesday for a second term in office after a months-long storm over alleged corruption and poor governance that ended after he was cleared in an independent probe.

In a speech at the AfDB’s annual meetings, Adesina formally requested a second term as president, declaring that he was “doing it with an acute sense of duty and commitment.”

“I do it to serve Africa and our bank, in an unbiased way, to the best of the abilities that God has given me,” he said, according to a statement issued by the bank.

Adesina, the son of a farming family, became in 2015 the first Nigerian to head the bank, one of the world’s five biggest multilateral lenders and an important but often unseen player in economic development.

He gained continent-wide recognition last October when the AfDB secured $115 billion (105 billion euros) in funding pledges, a move that doubled its capital and cemented its triple-A credit rating.

The AfDB has estimated that the continent could lose at least $173.1 billion in GDP in 2020 and $236.7 billion in 2021 as a result of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis.

The bank has moved swiftly in response, setting up a coronavirus funding mechanism in April of up to $10 billion.

The number of shareholders in the AfDB rose to 81, Adesina said, with the admission of Ireland. Fifty-four shareholders are African, while the others are from the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Sodiq Oyeleke

African Development Bank, AFDB's Senior Director for Nigeria, Mr. Ebrima Faal and his team with Governor Kayode Fayemi
Agriculture Economy Politics

AfDB Team Visits Ekiti, Reiterates Support for Government

By Web News 1173

The African Development Bank, AfDB, has promised to consider Ekiti State government requests for support in the areas of Agriculture and Infrastructural Development.

The AFDB’s Senior Director for Nigeria, Mr. Ebrima Faal, made this known in Ado Ekiti during a meeting between the technical team of the bank and Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi. 

He noted that the AfDB’s technical team was in Ekiti to finalise its decisions to assist in some sectors at a recent meeting between management of the bank and Ekiti state delegation led by Governor Fayemi held in Abidjan Cote D’Ivoire.

Mr. Faal explained that Ekiti state government had taken the right step by seeking partnership with the AfDB to address its infrastructural deficit to fast track the development of the state.

In a remark, Governor Kayode Fayemi told the delegation that his administration was ready to address infrastructural deficit and invest in agric business to provide jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the state.

The governor said his administration would always collaborate with development partners within and outside the country to facilitate more projects to the state. Tope Bamidele