The Federal Government and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have taken measures to improve disbursement performance of its Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP).The VCDP intervention is aimed at empowering the rural poor and bringing them out of poverty.
Dr Samuel Eremie, Mission Leader, Joint FGN/IFAD Implementation Support Mission, disclosed this to newsmen in Lafia on Monday at the beginning of a two-day visit to project sites in Nasarawa State.
He said that the overall VCDP disbursement performance in the country was very poor, hence the need for the mission to assess the physical evidence of implementation progress with a view to support states ramp up disbursement to meet the objective.
According to him, the disbursement performance for VCDP -Additional Financing I, rounding off in December 2022 is 40 per cent, and not acceptable.
“The mission is covering nine states but the field visit is in two states. We have visited Ogun state and now we are in Nasarawa state.
“The objective is to have evidence of the reports presented. So, we want to go beyond what has been reported to confirm and verify the performance of the VCDP in the state.
“The reports from Nasarawa were satisfactory and commendable so far in the last three years of participation in the programme. We will be heading to the field to have discussions with the beneficiaries and verify what is on ground,” he said.
Eremie said that the mission was committed to support the VCDP in Nasarawa State to ramp up its disbursement performance that would eventually contribute to the overall VCDP disbursement performance in the country.
On her part, Dr Fatima Aliyu, National Programme Coordinator of FGN/IFAD VCDP, said the programme had positively impacted the lives of the poor and vulnerable rural dwellers in five local government areas in Nasarawa State.
Aliyu, who was represented by Mr Usman Mohammed, Financial Controller of the programme, said more than 2,000 cassava and rice farmers have been reached by the intervention in Nasarawa State.
She thanked the Nasarawa State government for keying into the Value Chain Development Programme, adding that it had boosted food production in the state.
“The programme came on board at the end of 2019, and from the records presented today, you will see that a lot has been achieved despite the challenges.
“We really appreciate the efforts been made by the Nasarawa state VCDP, the staff and all the beneficiaries of the programme.
“The programme is aimed at taking the rural poor out of poverty, address cases of post-harvest losses, environmental degradation, limited access to productive assets and inputs, inadequate financial services, low productivity, among others,” Aliyu said.
