No fewer than three million people, particularly rural dwellers in Bauchi State will benefit from the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL), a World Bank supported project in the state, Governor Bala Mohammed has said.
The project, according to the governor, will intervene in massive tree planting, irrigation farming, agroforestry, green house farming, plant nursery development units, farm produce processing centres and integrated solar-powered borehole schemes in the state.
At the stakeholders engagement in Bauchi yesterday, the governor said the state, through the SPMU, had received the advance release of the $2m to commence implementation of the project.
He told the implementation team that seven communities in the state; Gwaram, Kirfi, Gololo, Gwallagan Mayaka, Duguri, Suleiman Adamu and Yakubun Bauchi are beneficiaries of the first stage of the project implementation with huge interventions of civil works to include storm water- drainages and dams to avert flooding and erosion.
“Bauchi State is endowed with natural resources and special ecosystems, game reserves, vast arable and irrigable lands as well as water resources comprising 10 macro-watersheds, 46 micro- watersheds, seven major rivers, five lakes and ten major wetlands,” he said.
The governor said in spite of these endowments, natural and man-induced climatic changes and population increase constitute barriers to development and the state’s capacity to reach its optimum potential.
“Our first expression of interest to participate in the ACReSAI project was prepared by the state’s technical team and submitted to the World Bank in 2021. Within two years, there were many engagements during which the state government assiduously pursued all the processes of establishing the ACRESAL State Project Management Unit (SPMU), deployment of competent staff to the SPMU, provided project vehicles and above all release of the counterpart funds in the sum N500, 000,000 in 2022 despite the dwindling resources,” he said.
The state project coordinator, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Gamawa on behalf of the benefitting communities commended the government for the initiative to participate in the ACReSAL project.
He listed the benefits of the projects, and presented representatives of the benefiting communities to the governor, while soliciting their cooperation for the successful execution and sustenance of the projects in the various communities of the state.
According to him, the implementation unit will ensure effective and judicious utilisation of all the funds for the benefit of the state.
The Emir of Katagum, Alhaji Umar Farouk II who was at the event appointed as the patron of the project implementation team assured the governor that they would do their best in ensuring its success, adding; “At the end of the six years project implementation, there would be institutionalised arrangement to sustain the laudable project in which over three million Bauchi indigenes would benefit.”
The commissioner for environment who is the chairman of the steering committee, Hamisu Mu’azu Shira, said the project is a welcome development to the state, hence the need for the steering and technical committees to engage all the critical stakeholders to achieve the desired objectives.
