Akwa Ibom To Benefit From World Bank Assisted Project

The Federal Government has listed 18 states that will benefit from the $500 million World Bank assisted the project.

The National Coordinator of Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP), Mr. Ularamu Ubandoma, said the states will join the already benefiting ones to share from the $500 million World Bank fund.

Mr. Ubandoma 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 a 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.”

Ubandoma said the program covers all parts of 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 Ibom. In South West, we have Ogun, Oyo and Ondo States. These are states that emerged from the six geopolitical 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, Mr. Audu Ogbeh. The thinking now is zero rejection of our agricultural produce at the international markets.”

Ubandoma said that the third phase of the project, RAAMP3 was to improve rural access and agricultural marketing in the selected participating states, whilst enhancing the 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 products can access the 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.”