Nasarawa State has been elevated to the second-tier services of the World Bank’s Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACreSAL) project.
ACreSAL task team leader and senior environmental specialist in World Bank, Joy Ageni revealed this during an engagement in Lafia.
She said the elevation of the state was due to its proactiveness and commitment to the activities of the project.
“In ACreSAL for the state to access funds for investment the benefitting state has to go through some process.
“The criteria includes technical and demonstration commitment where the technical aspect is the banking design while the demonstration commitment is the physical activities carryout in the project.
“Without commitment and demonstration of the activities done so far the organization wouldn’t have been in the state and because of the success recorded the state has qualified to move from tier 1 to tier 2,” she said.
Speaking while flagging off the disbursement of $250, 000 ACReSAL loan to farmers from 10 communities in the state, Governor Abdullahi Sule said the gesture was in line with the vision of the state and federal government to support farmers to boost production of farm produce.
The benefiting communities were drawn from Doma and Toto local government areas of the state.
He said the ACReSAL loan is revolving and interest free to farmers aimed at boosting agricultural output and improving the livelihood of the beneficiaries.
He attributed the state success in the project to the judicious use of funds by the state.
“The state government has made sure that money is spent judiciously. That is why we achieved not only the project but other activities,” he stated.
He said moving the state to the tier 2 of the project would go a long way in encouraging it to do more.
