Linus Aleke in Abuja
The proposed $500 million additional financing for the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) project has received broad support from stakeholders across northern Nigeria, according to the Think Nigeria First Initiative (TNFI).
Speaking during a press conference in Abuja, the Director General of TNFI, Alhaji Abubakar Tsanni, said governors, traditional rulers, farmers, herders and women’s groups had thrown their weight behind the next phase of the project because of the tangible results recorded in their communities.
Tsanni identified the governors of Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kebbi, Kaduna, Jigawa, Benue and Plateau States as among those who had personally inaugurated, inspected or flagged off ACReSAL interventions.
He added that Bauchi State had publicly committed its counterpart funding to the proposed next phase.
“Traditional institutions, including the palaces of the Shehu of Borno, Emir of Argungu and Emir of Zazzau, work hand-in-hand with the project. In Wurno, a farmer of 27 years on the irrigation scheme says hope has returned. In Nguru, herders and fishermen have returned to a wetland that was dry for 12 years,” Tsanni said.
According to him, women account for 47 per cent of the project’s 4.4 million direct beneficiaries, while university students in Kogi, Kebbi and Plateau States are being trained in modern greenhouse farming on their campuses.
He further said the Federal Ministers of Environment, Water Resources and Agriculture had jointly participated in the project’s mid-term review in Kaduna.
Tsanni maintained that stakeholders were not seeking charity, but sustainable financing built around continuity, shared responsibility and self-reliance.
He disclosed that participating states had so far released N22 billion in counterpart funding, while the $9.5 million Community Revolving Fund disbursed to 381 communities was being repaid and re-lent.
He also noted that Benue and Nasarawa States had established state agencies to ensure the sustainability of the project’s assets.
The TNFI Director General therefore urged governors, traditional rulers, legislators and community leaders across the north who had witnessed the impact of ACReSAL to “say so publicly, and say so now”.
He also called on the Federal Government and the World Bank to conclude the financing arrangement without further delay.