Safe water: Lagos, USAID to improve access, supply - NaijaAgroNet

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To improve access to safe water, the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to have a holistic revitalization of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) for the residents.

This was revealed during a working visit of USAID team led by Dr. Joechim Ezeji to LWC on the Lagos Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (LUWASH) at the LWC 45 million Gallons per Day (MGD) Iju Waterworks.

USAID lifts African CNC with agro transformation grant

NaijaAgroNet:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is advancing undisclosed grant to the Africa Lead II and the CAADP Non-State Actors Coalition (CNC) in support of initial CAADP four countries including Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This was a key resolution from the just ended meeting of Africa Lead II and the CAADP Non-State Actors Coalition (CNC) in Ghana.

The grant is to support CAADP in Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and Kenya in the first phase.

The official communique from the meeting made available to NaijaAgroNet invited interested organizations to submit a brief concept paper in order to earn the chance to apply for resources and support, build relationships and networks with key actors in CAADP, and put their idea into action.

The grant activities, NaijaAgroNet reports, would help to create and effectively bring about approaches towards improving citizen engagement in national food security investment priorities as outlined by the CAADP themes.

NaijaAgroNet equally reports that interested non-state actors should submit proposals with focus on aligning Non-State Actors (NSA) programme design and development to the CAADP agenda to support relevant National Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP) priorities.

Also, NaijaAgroNet  reports that proposal should include on how to make use of agricultural performance data relevant to specific CAADP themes for advocacy and strategic communication purposes; and ready to generate relevant data sets to support the ongoing monitoring of CAADP progress.

“Applicants may propose new projects or scale up small projects that have demonstrated success. Awardees will be expected to share evaluation results and key lessons, and periodically disseminate activities and outcomes with the broader community.  If your organization is working towards creative solutions for these objectives in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, or Senegal, please review the application and submit your idea,” our source told NaijaAgroNet.

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USAID, FAO sign $15m MoU to boost agro data collection

NaijaAgroNet:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have signed a $15 million Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost the capacity of developing countries to track key agricultural data -information that is essential to good policy making, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This MoU, NaijaAgroNet gathered will assist in tracking progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly considering the second goal of SDGs which is to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. 

Director-General at FAO, José Graziano da Silva, said that in the decades to come, humanity will need to produce more food for a growing population using natural resources such as water, land and biodiversity in a sustainable way, while coping with the challenges imposed by climate change.

"Our ability to boost food yields sustainably and meet the SDG hunger eradication target will hinge on the availability of better, cost-effective and timely statistical data for agriculture and rural areas" he said.

The Assistant to the Administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Food Security and Deputy Coordinator for Development for the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative, Beth Dunford, said that they are pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with the FAO on this important endeavor that will help build sustainable agricultural and food systems.

“Strong national data systems are critical for governments and private sector actors to make informed and smart decisions that foster food security and economic prosperity. Our work with FAO under the Feed the Future initiative builds on years of success and lessons learned, and is essential to bring about the types of data systems to support the more catalytic investments needed to achieve a food-secure world by 2030”​ she said.

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USAID supports Asia, Africa, Middle East with N17.33b

NaijaAgroNet:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced further $87 million, about N17.33 billion to  combat pandemic animal disease threats in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, reports NaijaAgroNet.

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The funding which backs the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) efforts to combat global animal disease, covers the 2015-19 period and is expected be channeled into monitoring and surveillance, epidemiological studies, prevention and control activities as well as improving veterinary capacities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and promoting links between animal health specialists and the public health sector.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, NaijaAgroNet gathered, thanked the U.S. for its support and longstanding partnership.

"This shows how important transboundary diseases are for FAO and the UN system, and how much more important they will be in the future if we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Millions of people rely on livestock for survival, income and nutrition, and their livelihoods must be protected," he said.

The Director, Global Health Security and Development with USAID's Bureau for Global Health, Dennis Carroll, said: "We are pleased by what our partnership with FAO for emerging pandemic threats has so far achieved, and the important contribution FAO's work is making to the U.S. Global Health Security Agenda programme to address threats posed by the natural emergence of new diseases and the intentional and/or accidental release of dangerous pathogens.

The latest USAID contribution of $87 million to FAO, NaijaAgroNet learnt, will further strengthen the programme and partnership between our two organizations, and build upon the good work already underway in the second phase of the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats program (EPT-2). 

 Nearly $50 million of this contribution will support the global fight against the Ebola virus by building global capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to future outbreaks and prevent them from becoming epidemics."

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Sirleaf, Malac; Inaugurates Industrial Rice Processing Facility

NiajaAgroNet:

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, will today officially inaugurate  Liberia’s first industrial rice processing and warehousing facility, Fabrar Liberia Inc., in Kakata, Margibi County, alongside U.S Ambassador to Liberia, Deborah Malac, NiajaAgroNet reports.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that with financial and technical support from the U.S. Government through the USAID Food and Enterprise Development (USAID FED) program and private equity financing from West Africa Venture Fund in 2014, Fabrar Liberia Inc. was able to procure an automated rice processing plant and expand its warehouse facilities.

The USAID FED Program, NaijaAgroNet learnt is implemented in six counties: Bong, Nimba, Lofa, Grand Bassa, Margibi and Montserrado and aims to reduce hunger and promote food security by increasing agricultural productivity and profitability of food crops (rice, cassava, vegetables, and goats), stimulating enterprise development and building agriculture workforce.

As against the previous supply of rice entirely by foreign imports due to a lack of domestic supply, NaijaAgroNet gathered that, the Liberia Government through the industrial rice processing and warehousing facility and Fabrar Liberia Inc. would market rice to local consumers in Monrovia and throughout the country.

Fabrar Liberia Inc. (Fabrar) was fully incorporated 2009, as Liberian owned and run agriculture holding firm to tackle food insecurity in Liberia by improving the livelihoods of farmers and providing them with increased access to domestic and international food markets

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USAID backs FG with N480bn agric fund

NaijaAgroNet: 

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is supporting the Federal Government’s agriculture programme with $3billion, about N480bn agric funding, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Lamido Sanusi, made this known in the company of  Federal Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who signed on behalf of the Federal Government, whereas the USAID Administrator, Dr. Rajiv Shah, endorsed the dotted lines for the agency.

NaijaAgroNet reports that the agreement, which was signed at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, showed that it will enable the parties to use co-guaranties, joint technical assistance, combined training and workshops for local banks and agriculturally-linked enterprises to encourage the growth of the agriculture sector in Nigeria.

Also speaking, Shah said under the agreement, the US would immediately provide guarantee of up to $100m in commercial lending to Nigerian banks. Stressing that the move will help increase private financing to the sector as well as reduce banks’ apathy to agricultural lending.

“We are very proud of this partnership agreement because we know that in all of the promise and success that the future holds for Nigeria; agriculture nearly 70 per cent of small scale farmers lack access to financing. Because of this partnership, hundreds of millions of dollars will be made available so that farmers can access and improve their production system and their processing operations,” he said.

Equally commenting, Adesina said the grant would help to address some of the issues affecting lending to the sector by banks, noting that the high interest rates, persistently decline in the quantum of lending to the sector and risk of default.

 “What this facility is going to do, and I really commend the Central Bank governor, is to reduce the risk of lending by banks,” he said.

Pointing out that  they were thrilled at the $8bn investment commitment into this sector in one year and  were also excited by the fact that of the N3bn that was lent last year to seeds and fertilizer companies, the default rate was zero per cent.

“So, on this facility, the central bank will put out risk sharing instruments, which will leverage the excess liquidity from the commercial banks. The total amount that we are looking at is $3bn overtime,” he said.

Adesina said, the amount that would be facilitated under the Nigerian Incentive-based Risk Sharing for Agriculture Lending had about four components.

The components are to reduce the risk faced by banks, provide technical assistance to banks, improve the agriculture value chain and provide insurance cover.

As said, Adesina noted that the grant is an endorsement of the fact that the Central Bank and the banking community recognise there is a revolution on the way in Nigeria in agriculture.

“They are ready to put significant financing behind it,” he said.

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USAID, ECOWAS food security confab ends in Accra

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have concluded a three-day conference to improve food security, free movement and services in Accra.

The Ghana News Agency (GNA) reports that the objective of the conference was to jump-start the actions needed to unleash the full potential of regional trade to help safeguard the region’s food security in the future.

NaijaAgroNet also notes that the three-day conference attended by officials of civil society groups, governments, technical partners and private institutions in West Africa had the theme: “Food Across Borders: Improving Food Security through Regional Trade in West Africa.”

Mr Salifou Tiemtore, Director of Customs, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said there were many barriers to free movement of goods including lack of understanding of legislation, high tariffs and non-compliance with products.

He said a lot of countries within ECOWAS were refusing to implement the ECOWAS regulations, saying “the lack of regional trade policy within the sub-region is also a challenge”. Read more

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Nigeria, USAID sign MoU, offers huge lending potentials in agric sector

The Federal Government of Nigeria and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), today, Thursday in Abuja, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Nigerian Incentives-based Risk Sharing system for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).

Confirming this to NaijaAgroNet, the Special Assistant on Media and Strategy to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye, said that the MoU involved Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and USAID.

In his remarks at the ceremony, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, was quoted as saying the MoU will play a significant role in reformation going on in the sector, which is in line with President Jonathan’s transformation agenda and in order to make the agric sector attractive to lending.

Dr. Adesina, also said that the implementation of the MoU would address the issue of low lending rate to the agriculture sector, stressing that the effort would further get the banks to lend to the farmers as it would reduce the risk of lending.

“NIRSAL can unlock about N300 billion into the sector but we have to embark on significant reforms that can make the sector attractive to lending,” he was quoted as saying in a press statement endorsed by Dr. Oyeleye and made available to NaijaAgroNet.

Additionally, he said the MoU provides risk mitigation, financing, trading, and other strategic assistance to agribusiness, a programme which was launched in July 2011 in Abuja.

In his part, the CBN Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said the MoU was a landmark achievement of the apex bank in its effort to ensure enhanced agricultural sector in the country.

Sanusi noted that commercial banks, with the recent development, would lend to farmers without much losses as the incentive would go a long way to reduce the risk in business.

NIRSAL,: he said, will help the banks to diversify; and the banking industry cannot develop on a sustainable basis unless it locks itself into production.

“So, we say let’s go to agriculture, manufacturing, SMEs and also into financial inclusion and development which is central to financial stability,” the CBN governor said.

Sanusi further said that the apex bank would meet with the managing directors of banks and the minister of agriculture to evaluate the implementation and the progress so far made. Pointing out that the sector had made progress as it accounts for four  per cent of banks portfolio as against one per cent in the last four years.

“We save more money with what the ministry is doing with staple crop process zones, reforms of fertiliser regime, research and development of high yielding varieties (of crops), the whole process of standardisation and commodity exchanges:  these are  critical and necessary steps to take  and pursuits to execute before banks can lend to agriculture,” Sanusi said.

He was optimistic that in the next one year, there would be revolution in the sector with the introduction of NIRSAL.

USAID Administrator, Dr Rajiv Shah, observed that the agreement would equally make agriculture a source of wealth creation in Nigeria, adding that 70 per cent of farmers in the country lack access to credit facility.

He expressed hope, however, that the MoU would provide credit guarantee of about 100 million dollars of agricultural credit to Nigerian farmers.

“We will guarantee that the agricultural sector will pay that loan back to banks. So they will have the courage and conviction to lend the loan to the farmers,” Shah said, emphasizing that the government of the United States was aware of some of the works the Nigerian ministry was doing in the agricultural sector.

As said by Shah, USAID has the markets initiative on rice, cocoa, sorghum and maize, adding the agreement could help develop their value chain programmes.

NIRSAL, NaijaAgroNet recalls, was established to spur additional financing for agriculture lending based on its experience with various guarantee programmes, including USAID’s development credit authority.

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