Eight states, mostly in the Northeast, have subscribed to a World Bank loan advanced to Nigeria for the development of livestock production.
All states in Nigeria are entitled to the loan but every state is required to sign and express commitments to the expectations from implementation of the loan.
The loan facility is being administered by the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project, L-PRESS, which said at an engagement session in Yola Thursday that the project is meant to support livestock farmers and processors.
At the Post-SLA Engagement Meeting for Northeast held in Yola, the L-PRESS National Project Coordinator, Sanusi Abubakar, named the eight states that have signed their Subsidiary Loan Agreements, SLA, as Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, Kogi, Kwara, Niger and Oyo.
He advised other states to act quickly for access to the loan facility.
He recalled that the project was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari earlier this year, on January 31, and that Adamawa which became the first state to sign the SLA, was chosen to host the first post-SLA Engagement Mission, a three-day event being attended by project implementers from the six states of the Northeast.
“We are in Adamawa to meet with the six Northeast states on the smooth implementation of the project. We need to interact with project-implementing units of the states. The states that have signed the agreement will have their funds. We need to engage with them for a smooth takeoff,” he explained.
Also speaking at the event, the Adamawa State Commissioner for Agriculture, Usmanu Yahaya, said the L-PRESS loan facility would be invested in the dairy value chain and will help the common man and further boost the livestock industry of the state.
He said livestock already contributes 28 percent to Adamawa’s GDP and that the new loan facility would further boost livestock production.
Credit: dailypost.ng
