Having considered negative effects of the novel Coronavirus pandemic on the World economy, especially on social life in the rural areas, on agricultural production and agribusiness, the World Bank has offered $1.5 billion, approximately N585 billion as a stimulus against the negative effects COVID-19 on agriculture and rural life.
The war chest of $1.5 billion is being built by the World Bank to be spent among the thirteen Rural Access And Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) States and Twenty-four others, including Federal Capital Territory, Abuja as part of special intervention made to ensure drastic poverty reduction in the rural areas and aimed at preventing rural-urban migration.
The World Bank programme, tagged COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (CARES), according to a release by the Transport Sector Programme Coordinator at the World Bank, Office, Abuja, Farhad Ahmed, would “support livelihoods, aid food security and help the local economy”.
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Ahmed added that the project, which is anticipatory, is expected to be fleshed up by the various states’ inputs, depending on their needs “within specified criteria relating to transport and road activities”.
He stated that such inputs from the states are expected to be listed for inclusion by the World Bank for the project and programmes take off by September and October 2020.
Expectedly, the project will run between a year and a half, barring any review, even as states would be paid by World Bank financial instrument called Program for Result (PforR) by “achieving results to be independently verified”.
The Ogun state government, which was represented by the Commissioner, Special Adviser and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development, Taiwo Oludotun, Olapeju Shote and Lekan Lukan, respectively, assured the Bank of the readiness of Dapo Abiodun-led administration in the state to ensure a buy-in, at a virtual meeting held during the week.
Oludotun, who spoke for the trio at the meeting, said the organised private sector background of the governor made the government buy-in easily accomplished.
Speaking on the project, the RAMP National Coordinator, Ubandoma Ularamu, an Engineer, said labour-based strategy would be employed in the letting and execution of the project.
Ularamu, who had called a meeting of like minds by the Commissioners and Permanent Secretaries of expected states for ferterlization of ideas, listed “spot improvement, rehabilitation of limited number of roads and routine maintenance of states and rural roads”, as beneficiaries.
