Nasarawa ACReSAL Signs N10bn Contract To Tackle Climate Change

Nasarawa State Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Project has signed a N10 billion contract with two companies to tackle climate change in the state.

The contract with the two companies, Bauhaus Global/ICCO and GET Engineering, is meant to tackle gully erosion challenges in Lafia, Doma and Toto local government areas of the state.

Coordinator of ACRESAL project in the state, Dr Napoleon Elias-Gyobe told journalists that the contract was divided into LOTs 1 and 2, explaining that the contract sum for LoT 1, which covered Lafia and Doma is over N6 billion, while the LOT 2 in Toto LGA stood at over N3.5 billion.

He said those whose property were likely to be affected by the projects would be compensated, adding that those affected around Kilenma axis of Lafia have received their compensation while those in Shinge were been profiled.

“We’ve already profiled the names of people in Toto LGA who will be compensated along the lines of corridors and we also hope to have serious stakeholders’ engagement because of the resettlement action plan.

“We have already paid some compensation to those at Kilenma area and those at Shinge all in Lafia LGA. We are also profiling their names on how we could also give them their compensation so that this project can have a serious buy-in from the communities,” he explained.

According to him, the first project has a 12-month timeline, while the second has an 18-month duration.

The project’s steering committee chairman and permanent secretary, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Muhammad Garba-Rosha, commended Governor Abdullahi Sule for ensuring that the ACReSAL project came on stream in the state.

He said through the initiative, many climate change challenges were being addressed across the state, adding that with the contract, flood issues in the benefiting LGAs would end, while irrigation farming would receive a boost.