Why we delayed release of $5m grant for farmers – IFAD

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has said the delay in the release of $5million grant to support smallholder farmers to fight climate change was due to management issues on the part of the federal government.

During the 2022 massive flood that destroyed the livelihood of many farmers in the country, IFAD announced an Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) grant of $5million to support farmers under its Value Chain Development Project (VCDP) to fight climate change.

The Associate Vice President of the IFAD, Rome, Dr Donal Brown, said this yesterday in Abuja during a press conference to mark the end of his official visit to Nigeria.

“On the ASAP ($5 million) grant, we should be able to release that, but like I said, there are some issues with the overall management that need to be addressed. As soon as they are addressed, we can release that fund,” he said.

Dr Brown, who was in Nigeria to review IFAD portfolio projects said, “We have been here since 1978. We have spent about $1.5billion in Nigeria. Our current portfolio is about $400million. We invest $100m to $110m dollars every three years, and we are looking forward to future investments. We are designing with the government a new project to support production value chains in northern Nigeria, and climate adaptation.”

He described as “very successful” the ongoing organisation’s projects in the country, the VCDP Additional Financing (AF) and Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise Niger Delta (LIFE-ND).

He, however, said the extension of the projects, which the federal government seeks, can only be accepted if it addressed some of the loopholes identified during the review mission, which include management issues on the part of the federal government and lack of payment of counterpart funds by some participating states.