IFAD in Nigeria

IFAD's strategy in Nigeria

IFAD has financed nine programmes and projects in Nigeria since 1985, with a total loan commitment of US$187.5 million. The country currently attracts over 40 per cent of the financial resources that the organization allocates to Western and Central Africa. All programmes and projects have addressed the livelihood needs of poor rural people, including smallholders, women, small business owners, poor fishing communities, young people and landless people. Operations have contributed to:

• generating and disseminating technology to increase incomes and family food security, while also introducing approaches for effective soil and water conservation and environmental management
• fostering demand-driven and participatory approaches to agricultural and rural support services
• strengthening capacity-building and institutional capacities to ensure the sustainability of successful development approaches

IFAD’s support to the Nigerian government’s poverty reduction programme in rural areas targets large numbers of smallholder farmers and is essentially people-centred. IFAD supports programmes and projects that work with communities and in which smallholder farmers are the key players. The organization also promotes commodity-based interventions that provide technical and financial support along several value chains such as livestock products, rice and other cereals, roots and tubers, vegetables and agroforestry products.

The objectives are to empower poor rural people, especially women, by increasing access to resources, infrastructure and services, and to promote the management of land, water and common property by local communities to help overcome environmental degradation. IFAD-supported programmes and projects address issues such as erosion and the loss of soil fertility, as well as coastal zone natural resource management. IFAD directs assistance towards:

• empowering small-scale farmers, landless people and rural women to generate sustainable incomes from farming and other activities
• supporting pro-poor reforms and local governance to expand access to information, effective transport systems, village infrastructures and technologies
• improving access by poor rural communities to financial services and social services

At government level IFAD helps build capacity and strengthen institutions that provide services to poor rural people, assisting with necessary policy changes, developing local organizations to enhance their effective participation, and promoting initiatives to foster rapid private sector-led poverty reduction and economic growth.
 

Source: IFAD