AfDB Pledges $86m To Boost Nigeria’s Special Agro‑Industrial Processing Zones

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has committed $86 million to Nigeria’s Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) programme, the bank said on Wednesday, bringing new momentum to efforts to expand agro-industrial development and strengthen agricultural value chains.

The disclosure came during the SAPZ Mid‑Term Review meeting in Abuja, where Dr Orison Amu, Implementation support manager at the AfDB’s Nigeria Country Department, was represented by the programme’s task manager, Bernard Onzima.

As of March 31, the AfDB reported a 41 per cent commitment rate for the programme and a 12 per cent disbursement rate, equal to about $25 million. The bank said it expects commitments to reach 70 per cent and disbursements to hit 35 per cent by the end of 2026.

The SAPZ initiative, a flagship AfDB programme, aims to reduce post‑harvest losses, increase productivity, promote value addition, create jobs and attract private investment by concentrating farming, aggregation, processing and distribution within modern agro‑industrial clusters.

Amu told the review that Nigeria’s SAPZ Phase I, approved in December 2021, experienced delays and only became effective in March 2023. Conditions for the first disbursement were met in August 2023, roughly 20 months after approval, he said.

Also at the meeting, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said it had approved an additional $50 million for SAPZ, bringing its total commitment to $100 million. IFAD was represented by Isaac Mensah, programme officer at its Nigeria office.

IFAD said its funding in Kano and Ogun states has reached more than 17,000 smallholder farmers with services such as climate information (to over 14,000 farmers) and improved inputs (to more than 9,000 farmers). IFAD highlighted SAPZ’s role in linking producers to markets via the Multi‑Stakeholder Agribusiness Forum and in creating opportunities for women, youths and rural entrepreneurs.

Stakeholders at the mid‑term review said the exercise would help identify implementation bottlenecks and accelerate delivery of programme objectives.

Background: Launched in October 2022, SAPZ Phase I covers Kano, Imo, Kaduna, Cross River, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory. Funding for the phase includes $210 million from the AfDB, $310 million in co‑financing from the Islamic Development Bank and IFAD, and $18.05 million from the Nigerian government.

The federal government has signalled plans to expand SAPZ to more states under a second phase supported by AfDB finance.

The AfDB added that its active portfolio in Nigeria rose to $6.2 billion across 53 operations as of the bank’s 2025 Country Portfolio Performance Review.