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Tag: USAID

  • ‘World Bank’ll improve literacy rate among school-age children’

    ‘World Bank’ll improve literacy rate among school-age children’

    The World Bank Group said on Tuesday that it would continue to support Nigeria toward boosting the literacy rate especially among school-age children.

    Dr Olatunde Adekola, the Senior Education Specialist, African Region of the World Bank, made this known in a sideline interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the ongoing 10th Pan African Literacy for all Conference, Abuja 2017.

    NAN reports that the conference was organised by the Reading Association of Nigeria (RAN) with support from the International Literacy Association, and the Federal Ministry of Education, among others.

    “World Bank is more than 100 per cent in support of what RAN is doing. We believe in this effort and for the World Bank, we will continue to support the country to enhance literacy.

    “This is because literacy is a critical determinant of a country’s economy, growth, development and standard of living of the people.

    “There is need for concrete action to strengthen the literacy systems, policies, structures and the desire for the achievement of sustainable development goals.

    “There is need to think through holistic approach to providing inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels especially for the vulnerable groups and particularly, the girl child,” Adekola said.

    The World Bank official added that it had inaugurated a one-million dollar project to enhance literacy in the northern parts of the country.

    According to him, the project is a global partnership for education tagged ‘Nigeria Partnership for Education’.

    He said: “It is carried out by the World Bank and other development partners such as USAID, UNICEF and DFID in the North West of the country.

    “The focus of the project is first, to strengthen the government systems to deliver basic education for the children by improving the basic education service delivery especially at the early primary level.

    “The second focus is to improve both the supply side and the demand side of education in particular for girls.’’

    The education specialist noted that it was not enough to enrol children in school, as they would also need to be provided with the right type of learning environment to ensure proper learning.

    He said the project involved “Conditional Cash Transfer” whereby girls would be given scholarships to enrol in school and study for three years at the primary school level.

    “We also give scholarship to teachers who do not have the National Certificate of Education so that in the next three years they can attend College of Education and obtain the certificate.

    “We also provide materials. All these are to make sure that we improve literacy and numeracy at a very early stage of their education, especially in the first three years.

    “The project has a life span of four years. We are almost two years into it now.

    “We still have about two more years and the outcome is very good because we are now seeing more girls in school.

    “Nevertheless, we need partnerships, collaboration and cooperation between and within state and non-state actors to address the issue of literacy as a tool for problem-solving.

    “However, we will continue to support the country to enhance the literacy level in the country,” he explained.

    Adekola, who is also the Task Team Leader for the Global Partnership for Education in Nigeria, the conference would focus more on literacy, reading, language and learning issues.

    He stated that the idea is to ensure that children become familiar with the language in which they will be taught as a step toward improving their literacy.

  • Stakeholders rob minds on food security

    Postharvest Loss Alliance for Nutrition (PLAN) under the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is working to end hunger in the country through food security.

    This emerged at a three-day workshop held in Lagos State, which  was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation Yieldwise Programme and USAID. It had in attendance All Farmers Association of Nigeria, market association, manufacturers and government officials.

    Senior Project Manager for PLAN Dr. Augustine Okoruwa said Nigeria is a nation that could thrive on agriculture, but should work toward a postharvest scheme.

    He said: “We discovered that for you to feed the family, you need to have the product available in the market to sell. However we discovered that for fresh foods and vegetables, the losses after production is very high. In fact, on average it is about 50 per cent but in some locations in Nigeria, people lose 70 to 100 per cent of the fresh fruits and vegetables they have grown because of lack of cold chain logistics, no cooling facilities, poor transportation and lack of processing facilities close to the place where they are producing.

    “To ensure that we reduce postharvest loss is to ensure that people understand the importance of postharvest handling of fresh foods and vegetables. Apart from that, the issue of food safety is critical, so that when they are handling it, they are conscious of the fact that human beings would consume it.

    ”We decided as part of our project to build capacity for businesses. We have been doing a lot of capacity building in finance, on development of bankable business plans and now we are doing on food safety.

    “We identified Kaduna and Lagos, Kaduna being one of the largest regions in the north that produces tomatoes and other fresh foods and vegetables and Lagos being the hub for consumption and processing. So here we are seeing more processors in attendance, and the essence is to build the capacity of agro businesses in the agricultural value chain to adhere to international best practices, even on the farm.”

    Okoruwa explained that the identified challenges to food security was the high wastage.

    “For a hectare of land, you get 120 tons of tomatoes compared to the Nigerian farmer who will only get 10 tons using the same resources. If we continue that way, it would get to a point were a lot of people will go hungry and a lot of resources would have been wasted. So food safety is one of the identified drivers of food security.

    ”We hope that participants would go back to their various organisations and train others. We have a lot of executives here as well as Government representatives so we hope that they would go back and deploy what they have learnt and then improve on their operations.

    ”For instance, Lagos state has land policies that are being developed and there are market sensitisation projects that Lagos and Ogun States are running. One of the economic recovery plans is focusing on developing agriculture. Awareness at that level is now high. At the Federal Government level it has been recognized and has been listed as one of the drivers of economic recovery,” he said.

    A lead trainer for Kowafresh, Ademola Adebowale,  said consumers should demand quality for the sake of their health, noting that Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Production Requirements & Control should be the benchmark.

    He said the government needed to set a pace for standard, stressing that there should be national GAP. He cited countries like Thailand, Japan and Malaysia as counties with the benchmark.

    “Today’s consumer is demanding value and wants quality. If someone can go to Shoprite and spend N2000 to buy a few pieces of tomatoes, it simply means the individual wants value. Consumers today are tired of eating things that pose a threat to their health. Stakeholders need to come together, form collaborations, put a standard in place for the agriculture industry as fruits and vegetables needs to be standardised.”

  • USAID: Farmers’ sales hit N396b

    The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Market II project designed to help rural farmers in the country has recorded sales valued at N396 billion in five years, a report presented by the USAID has stated.

    The report titled: Maximising Agricultural Revenue and Key Enterprises in Targeted Sites II (MARKET II) was unveiled yesterday in Abuja at the five-year project final event held in Abuja.

    USAID Nigeria Mission Director, Mr. Stephen Haykin said about 1.9 million rural households were supported to increase productivity and finance, with special attention on women and youths between ages of 18 to 29.

    Haykin explained that the project which commenced in April 2012 and expected to end in October, 2017 was able to link farmers to processors and off-takers, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing post-harvest losses.

    He described the market II project as deliberate plan to help realise the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the past administration and Green Alternative Policy of the Federal Government, contributing to food security and increasing incomes for rural households.

    According to him, the initiative attracted N4.9 billion private sector investment, N13.9 billion public sector investment and N52.9 billion worth of loans with 3,306,399 metric tons in volume of agricultural commodities sold by the benefiting farmers.

    Earlier, Managing Director, Market II Project, Harvey Schartup said the intervention was designed to support rural farmers in 25 states working on seven agricultural commodities and its value-chains.

    The states include Sokoto, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, kebbi, Taraba, Niger, Nasarawa, Benue, Ebonyi, Oyo, Imo, Rivers among others while the commodities are maize, cocoa, cassava, bee keeping, sorghum and others.

    He said with the intervention and adoption of improved seeds, participating farmers were able to engage in both wet season and dry season farming, especially in the area of rice.

  • USAID farm project: Farmers make N396b sales value in five years

    USAID farm project: Farmers make N396b sales value in five years

    The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Market II project designed to help rural farmers in the country has recorded sales valued at N396 billion in five years, a report presented by the USAID has stated.

    The report titled Maximizing Agricultural Revenue and Key Enterprises in Targeted Sites II (MARKET II) was made public, yesterday in Abuja at the 5-year project final event held in Abuja.

    USAID Nigeria Mission Director, Mr. Stephen Haykin disclosed during the event that about 1.9 million rural households were supported to increase productivity and finance, with special attention on women and youths between ages of 18 to 29.

    Haykin explained that the project which commenced in April 2012 and expected to end in October, 2017 was able to link farmers to processors and off-takers, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing post-harvest losses.

    He described the market II project as a deliberate plan to help realize the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the past administration and Green Alternative Policy of the Federal Government, contributing to food security and increasing incomes of rural households.

    According to him, the initiative attracted N4.9 billion private sector investment, N13.9 billion public sector investment and N52.9 billion worth of loans with 3,306,399 metric tons in volume of agricultural commodities sold by the benefiting farmers.

    Earlier, Managing Director, Market II Project, Harvey Schartup said the intervention was aimed to support rural farmers in 25 states working on seven agricultural commodities and its value-chains.

    The states include Sokoto, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, kebbi, Taraba, Niger, Nasarawa, Benue, Ebonyi, oyo, Imo, Rivers among others while the commodities are Maize, Cocoa, Cassava, Bee Keeping, Sorghum and the rest.

    He said with the intervention and adoption of improved seeds, participating farmers were able to engage in both wet season and dry season farming, especially in the area of rice.

    Schartup added that the farmers increased production to over 1.7 million metric tons of rice for the wet season and 429, 800 metric tons of rice produced for the dry season.

    He described the outputs as indications that dry season and wet season farming could help reposition the nation’s economy, adding that farmers do not have to be literate to succeed in the venture.

    He emphasized on the dry season farming, stressing that it was capable of achieving food security, mainly if supported with good policies and best agronomy.

    “We are optimistic about the prospects of agriculture. The future of Nigeria agribusiness is great. We have shown that small holders farming can be productive and profitable.

    “Farmers are smart, but they are also careful; they have to be able to provide for their families. If they see an opportunity, if they see their neighbours doing better, if they see that the methods and technologies are within their reach, they will seize it but they will; adapt and adopt,” Schartup added.

  • LASIEC clears 12 parties for July 22 council polls

    LASIEC clears 12 parties for July 22 council polls

    Ahead of the July 22 council polls, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) says it has cleared 12 political parties out of the 23 registered for the elections.

    Mr Dapo Olatunde, LASIEC’s Director of Publicity, said in a statement that the cleared parties had met the commission’s requirements for the polls and also presented candidates for validation.

    Olatunde listed the parties as the All Progressives Congress (APC), Action Alliance (AA), Alliance for Democracy (AD), Labour Party (LP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Accord Party.

    Others are Kowa Party, National Action Council (NAC) , People’s Democratic Movements (PDM) ,United Democratic Party (UDP)
    and United Progressive Party (UPP).

    He said the names of the validated candidates had been displayed at the commission’s headquarters for observation by party members and members of the public.

    Meanwhile, the commission has begun a three-day “Train -the-Trainer”course for its electoral officers across the 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas.

    According to Olatunde, the training, facilitated by the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES), was to equip ad-hoc staff engaged for the July 22 elections.

    IFES is a United States-based organisation committed to the deepening of democracy and international best standards in election management.

    The organization operates in more than 100 countries and is supported by USAID.

  • AfDB wants MSMEs lending in Africa to be increased to $135bn

    AfDB wants MSMEs lending in Africa to be increased to $135bn

    The African Development Bank (AfDB) has called on financial credit providers to increase lending to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa to 135 billion U.S. dollars.

    A statement issued by Mr. Emeka Anuforo, the Communications Officer of the Bank, in Abuja on Wednesday said that increasing affordable loans would promote the growth of MSMEs on the continent.

    The statement quoted Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of AfDB, as saying that although Africa had the highest percentage of adults starting or running new businesses in the world, the productivity nonetheless remained low.

    Adesina solicited a holistic policy approach to strengthen entrepreneurship to facilitate Africa’s industrialisation and tackle the myriad financial constraints facing small-scale businesses.

    “The entrepreneurial culture is vibrant, with about 80 per cent of Africans viewing entrepreneurship as a good career opportunity.

    “New industrialisation strategies should focus on leveraging this dynamism and targeting the continent’s fast-growing private enterprises which have potential to create quality jobs.

    “Given Africa’s potential for increased involvement in this sector, AfDB is also increasing its efforts to promote access to finance for entrepreneurs to create start-ups and expand existing businesses,” he said.

    Adesina said that the bank in 2016 provided financial services to 156,000 owners and operators of MSMEs via financial intermediaries to address a key challenge facing efforts to start and grow businesses.

    He said that AfDB had collaborated with USAID, the Fund for Africa Private Sector Assistance and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to build the capacity of SMEs in Zambia.

    He said that the partnership was to enable the nation’s financial institutions to become efficient in lending to smaller businesses.

    According to him, the bank is also launching some new programmes that are designed to help Africa to attain its industrialisation goals.

    Adesina said that the bank was also collaborating with the European Investment Bank and the European Commission to help create and grow 1,500 innovative businesses, while creating 25 000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs.

    He said that the collaboration would also improve environmental, social and management practices in youth-owned SMEs across Africa.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that AfDB, a regional multilateral development bank which has 81 countries as members, promotes the economic and social development of its members.

  • Ebola: WHO deploys new technology for rapid diagnosis in DRC

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it had deployed new technology that allowed for rapid diagnosis of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

    WHO said in a statement that in collaboration with the DRC’s Ministry of Health and partners, it had rapidly set up an intensified field alert and response system resulting in early identification of suspect cases detected in the affected zone.

    The DRC is using these new tools, as well as classic ones, to respond to an ongoing outbreak of the virus in a very remote area of the north east of the country, it said.

    The world health body said scientists now quickly gathered samples, shipped them to Kinshasa and tested them at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB).

    “One of the technologies being used to detect Ebola in DRC is GeneXpert, which was primarily developed to detect cases of tuberculosis, but has been adapted to enable rapid testing of many pathogens – HIV, malaria, STIs, and Ebola.

    “At the INRB laboratory in Kinshasa – with support from USAID, WHO, Canada, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and the Emerging and Dangerous Pathogens Laboratory Network (EDPLN) – technicians can use GeneXpert to test for the Zaire strain of Ebola in just one hour.

    “For samples that are negative, further testing is then undertaken to check for other strains of Ebola, other viral haemorrhagic fevers, or other diseases.

    “Other tests developed during the West African outbreak are also being deployed, such as OraQuick – a rapid diagnostic test, which has been developed with the support of the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and GOARN.

    “In the field, OraQuick can test blood or saliva samples for Ebola in just half an hour,” the UN health agency said.

    Even if many or all suspect cases now being tested are negative, it remains vital to actively follow contacts of all confirmed, probable, suspect cases for 21 days, and then to continue enhanced surveillance for an additional 21-day period, it said.

    “Any period of calm is an opportunity to continue building and reinforcing local and country preparedness and response capacities and ensuring rapid investigation teams are ready in case the virus should resurface”.

    This is the eighth outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the DRC since the disease was discovered in the 1970s in the country, WHO said.

    “Health authorities in this country are recognised throughout the African region and the world as experts in responding to outbreaks of this disease,” it said.

    Since the major outbreak in West Africa in 2014, an increasing number of diagnostic tools have become available to perform rapid initial testing of samples, the UN agency said.

  • 1m Nigerian children die yearly of lack of water – USAID

    1m Nigerian children die yearly of lack of water – USAID

    • 57m Nigerians lack access to potable water

    United State Agency for International Development (USAID), has said that over 57 million Nigerians have no access to potable water in the country.

    This was also as it said that, one million Nigerian children die yearly for lack of potable drinking water.

    USAID Mission Director, Stephen M. Haykin stated these in Kaduna on Thursday at the occasion of official launch of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

    To this end, he said the USAID is supporting the WASH programme with 2.5 million Dollars to enable Nigerians have access to potable drinking water.

    According to him, “Having a clean water and sanitation is very essential for the development of a healthy society”.

    “Research has shown that, over 57 million of the Nigerian population don’t have access to potable water and sadly, about one million Nigerian children die yearly for lack of potable drinking water,” he said.

    Earlier, WASH project Coordinator, Timeyin Uwejamomere, said the project is expected to last for two years, ending in November 2018, adding that it will primarily target urban areas and focus the States of  Bauchi and Kaduna.

    He said this was because the respective State government have demonstrated firm commitment to the water sector.

    He said, “This is why we established a country office in the city of Kaduna, and last month a satellite office was opened in Bauchi.

    “The programme will strengthen institutions as well as research and knowledge management to support urban water, sanitation and hygiene”.

    In his speech to the occasion, Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-rufai who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Malam Bashir Saidu said when Zaria water work is completed, it will provide 150 million litres of water for the populace.

    Also, the Bauchi State governor, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar regretted that the influx of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the State has increased the demand for water supply at the expense of original supply.

    He therefore pledged the commitment and political will of his government to ensure the success of the project.

  • Private sector partnership vital to food sufficiency – Minister

    Private sector partnership vital to food sufficiency – Minister

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh has said that private sector partnership in the agriculture sector remained vital for the country to attain food sufficiency.

    Ogbeh disclosed this at the inaugural meeting of the Joint Sector Steering Committee (JSC), organised by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the agriculture ministry yesterday in Abuja.

    He stated that it was imperative for the Federal Government to provide necessary infrastructure, control processes and oversight functions to support the private sector.

    The minister, who was represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Shehu Ahmed emphasized that the ministry was responsible to partner with major stakeholders to develop effective policies that will create conducive environment for better private sector participation in the sector.

    According to him, the JSR was to provide a platform to assess the performance and results of the agriculture sector and assist government to set sector policies and priorities.

    Ogbeh said: “The present administration has been able to put together an agriculture promotion policy. The purpose of the policy document is to provide a disciplined approach to building an agribusiness ecosystem that will stem the tide of food importation through import substitution so as to earn significant foreign exchange from agriculture.

    “The private sector will remain in the lead while government facilitates, regulates as well as provides supporting infrastructure, system, control processes and oversight.

    “It assesses how well stakeholders implemented pledges and commitment cooperation agreements in the sector. This objective is however consistent with the policy thrust of the present administration on agriculture.”

    Citing instances of nations that have adopted, the minister recalled that the African Union Commission (AUC) in 2015, assisted 11 member nations which included Benin Republic, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

    He added that the mentioned countries already took steps to strengthen mutual accountability based on findings of the JSRs conducted.

  • USAID invests $75m in agric

    USAID invests $75m in agric

    The United States (U.S.) Agency for International Development (USAID) has invested $75 million to help 800,000 farmers acquire improved seeds, fertiliser, tools and access to markets.
    Mission Director USAID Nigeria Michael Harvey announced this in Lagos during the launch of two new agribusiness partnerships with Chi Farms and Niji Foods.
    He said the cash was given to farmers under its Feed the Future initiative.
    Harvey said farmers empowered under the programme were able to get $5 million, following the support by USAID.
    On the partnership, Harvey said Chi Farms and Niji Foods would benefit from a grant of $500,000 from the programme to promote innovation to increase fish production and processing of cassava peels into livestock feeds.
    “With Nigeria’s increasing population, these programmes are vital to achieving food security and lowering dependency on exports. Public-private partnerships are a proven way of expanding investment in agriculture, improving both efficiency and productivity,” he said.
    Specifically, he said Chi Farms would train 1,000 smallholder fish farmers in Lagos and Ogun states on new farming techniques, access to credit, and marketing skills to help raise incomes.
    Farmers, according to him, will have access to quality juvenile catfish from Chi Farms’ multiple hatcheries, as well as aquaculture management training and financial tools to provide the knowledge necessary to build successful aquaculture businesses.
    According to him, Niji Foods, with the International Livestock Research Institute, with USAID support, is establishing three cassava peel processing centers to increase commercially-available livestock feed made from cassava peel.
    He said the group will recruit and train workers on critical operations and business management, not only creating the processing centers but also providing long-term local employment. In addition, they will ultimately hand over partial ownership of the centers to at least three women’s groups.
    Through these partnerships, Harvey, said USAID aims to address development and business challenges to agricultural inputs and mechanisation by providing quality technical advisory services and expanded market opportunities for smallholder farmers.
    These partnerships will also capitalise on the untapped potential of smallholder farmers and small processors to help grow agribusinesses, create secure jobs, and boost economic growth.