By Godfrey AKON

The Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises project in Niger Delta, LIFE-ND, says it has a target of empowering 38,250 youth and women in nine states of the region and 900 incubators/ enterprises.

Speaking at a Media Roundtable in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the National Project Coordinator of LIFE-ND, Engr Sanni Abiodun, said the primary target group are unemployed and underemployed youth, aged 18-35 years, as well as women-headed households with children under the age of 15.

Abiodun noted that LIFE-ND was designed by the federal government and funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, with overall goal of realizing a transformed rural economy in the Niger Delta from which the rural population can derive prosperity and equal benefit.

He disclosed that the project which commenced in 2019 is expected to terminate 2025, and is being implemented in 10 local government areas, LGA, per state and 10 communities per LGA, based on poverty level, youth unemployment, community involvement, conflict-free nature, level of agricultural activities and private sector involvement.

On funding of the project, he said IFAD, which is funding six states, provided a credit facility of $60 million, while the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, which is funding three states is has provided $30 million and the beneficiary states and federal government are providing $3.76 million and $4.91 million respectively.

He noted that IFAD is funding 25,500 beneficiaries from Abia, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ondo while NDDC is funding 12,750 beneficiaries from Akwa Ibom, Imo and Rivers states.

Abiodun disclosed that the project is in its midterm, adding that as at December 31, 2022, the project had disbursed 53 per cent of the fund, representing $30,944,576 to beneficiaries.

According to him, the project focuses on empowering beneficiaries on seven selected crops namely: cassava, rice, palm oil, fishery, poultry, cocoa and plantain.

Speaking on some of the achievements recorded by the project, he said it provided Feeder Farm Roads and Production and Processing facilities

“On Rural Market Infrastructures, the project promoted the development of environmentally friendly production cluster facilities for the enterprise commodities promoted across the six states as follows:

“Developed (construction/upgrade) over 38 poultry production cluster facilities in six participating states; Developed (construction/upgrade) over 54 fishery production cluster facilities in five participating states.

“Supported a total of 100 Incubatees with over 250 collapsible tarpaulin Ponds in five States; constructed over 3 Oil Palm Processing and 6 Cassava Processing Facilities in the five states; Constructed 7 Blocks of open/closed market store facilities in three States; Constructed 3nos. Cold Room and Ino. Farm House in two States and Constructed 2 landing jetties in one State,” he said.

The project coordinator also said the project is contributing to Nigeria’s strategic objective on food security, household and job creation as it has
“Recorded production output of over 2,176.06 MT of agricultural produce (450 MT for Cassava production; 219.74 MT for Rice seed multiplication: 230 MT of paddy rice production; 21.23 MT for cocoa production: 660 MT Poultry broiler production: 594.63 MT of fish production).

“Injected an approximate gross income value of over N1,877,820,583 into the national economy; reached out to over 6,964 smallholder farmers as at December 2022 ending and hope to attain over 13,000 beneficiaries by 2023 ending with plan addition of over 6000 beneficiaries by year 2023. With this level of outreach, LIFE-ND will significantly be contributing to Nigeria’s strategic objective of food security through its contribution to both the national food security and national economy.

“Promotion of ICT 4 development through the application and deployment of Digital technology to support small-holders farmers. This is inline with the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Policy (NATIP).

“The project development objective is to enhance income, food security and job creation for rural youth and women through agri- enterprise development on a sustainable basis in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria,” he said.

Abujainquirer