The Federal Government has listed
18 states that will benefit from the $500 million World Bank assisted project.
The National Coordinator of Rural
Access and Mobility Project, RAMP, Ularamu Ubandoma, said the states will join
the already benefiting ones to share from the 500 million dollars World Bank
fund.
The project is under the Rural
Access and Agricultural Marketing Project RAAMP3.
He said this at the unveiling of
selected participants in the 18 states under the RAAMP 3 project and
Pre-Appraisal Mission Wrap Up Meeting with the development partners in Abuja on
Friday.
He said, “The whole essence of
the project sponsored by the World Bank, French Development Bank and Africa
Development Bank is to provide suitable road network for rural farmers to
convey their farm produce to the market to avoid losses.
“What we are doing here today is
a meeting with new RAAMP states. New RAAMP is rural access and agricultural
marketing and we have about 18 states that have been selected to participate in
this new project all over the country.
“In the North East, we have
Borno, Bauchi and Taraba. In North Central, we have Plateau, Benue, Kogi and
Kwara. In North West, we have Kano, Kastina, Sokoto and Kebbi. “In South East,
we have Abia and Anambra. In South South, we have Cross River and Akwa Ibo. In
South West, we have Ogun, Oyo and Ondo States. These are states that emergence
from the six geo-political zones.
“The new RAAMP3 will be a little
different from the usual RAMP1 and 2, and we have implemented projects in seven
states and these projects are almost 100 per cent conclusion.
“The only difference is that we
are targeting RAAMP3 in line with president Buhari’s policy on agricultural
transformation.
“The policy is implemented
through the Green Agricultural Alternative under the leadership of the Minister
of Agriculture Chief Audu Ogbeh.
“The thinking now is zero
rejection of our agricultural produce at the international markets,” he said.
Ubandoma said that the third
phase of this project, RAAMP3 was to improve rural access and agricultural
marketing in the selected participating states, whilst enhancing sustainability
of the rural and state road network.
“We are going to target markets
and the value chains by adding value to our agricultural produce right from
production level. We will be looking at storage and processes.
“We want to know how these
produce can access different level of markets. We are trying to shift away from
the usual market not considering the rural people.
“We are now considering the rural
people because they form the bulk of our production level and they are
predominantly farmers living in the rural areas.
“We believe if we develop the
rural farmers through the provision of markets, definitely the economy will
improve and we will be earning foreign exchange through exportation.
“World Bank has been providing
assistance to Nigerian government for many years and we have standard for
procedure in execution of any project in the country.
“The Federal Government will
receive the fund they lent to states.
We have mechanism to process the procurement process to ensure that value for
money is achieved and transparency in transaction.
“At the end of the day, money
intended for any project is used correctly. We do direct checking of the
projects across all the states. The states bring back the money if they cannot
achieve the set project.
“We do field visit to ensure that
the goods are delivered in appropriate time and ensure standard,” he said.
After thought. Back dating documents and projects after the revelation of favoritisms and biases. APCism and Buharism!!! Carry go.
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