517 FCT vulnerable persons get FADAMA CARES grant

By Stanley Onyekwere

No fewer than 517 vulnerable people in FCT have received grants as beneficiaries of the second batch of FCT FADAMA CARES programme. 

The FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, yesterday at a symbolic disbursement held in Gwagwalada area council emphasised that the event was another significant indicator of the unflinching determination of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to take out 100 million Nigerians out of poverty and to generally improve livelihoods,  particularly for poor and vulnerable households in Nigeria. 

Aliyu revealed that earlier in June this year the flag-off ceremony of the programme was performed in Kwali, while pledging that the FCT Administration would continue to commit ample human and financial resources towards ensuring poverty reduction and improvement of livelihoods for poor and vulnerable agricultural households in the FCT.

‘’The specific objective of the FCT FADAMA CARES programme is to increase food security and safe functioning of food supply chain in the FCT. 

“The programme is deliberately designed to support the recovery of livelihood activities of poor and vulnerable persons engaged in agricultural value chains with special consideration to women and unemployed youth. 

“Its implementation will be anchored on the World Bank community driven development approach for deployment of programme investments at the community level”, she stressed 

The Minister further revealed that the FCT Administration has allocated the sum of $4.5 million to the FCT FADAMA CARES programme to implement three Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) out of a total allocation of $15 million made available to the FCTA by the World Bank for implementation of the programme.

She, therefore, called on all the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the grants by supporting their farming activities which would facilitate their recovery from the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore improving livelihoods and contribute to the attainment of increased food security and safe functioning of food supply chain in the FCT.

Also speaking, the FCTA permanent secretary, Mr. Adesola Olusade, noted that the federal government and the FCT Administration have invested time and resources in the FADAMA CARES programme and it has started yielding tangible results. 

He said the positive results could be attested by the excellent result achieved by the FCT during the programme eligibility assessment exercise conducted by the World Bank where the FCT scored 88% which placed the FCT within the rank of the very best performing states in the country.

Olusade called on the FCT Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat and other stakeholders to re-double their efforts towards ensuring the successful implementation of the programme in the FCT to enable the administration to reinvigorate households and small businesses in FCT ravaged by the devastating impact of COVID19 pandemic.

In his remarks, Secretary Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, Malam Abubakar Ibrahim, reiterated that this achievement is another significant milestone in the efforts of the FCT Administration towards supporting the attainment of food and nutritional security in the Federal Capital Territory.

He said: “This official disbursement of grants to second batch of beneficiaries under FCT FADAMA CARES programme further affirms the unflinching commitment of the FCT Administration towards poverty reduction and improvement of livelihoods for poor and vulnerable agricultural households in the territory”.

The items to be distributed include fertilizers, seeds and agrochemicals, sprayers and personal protective equipment for crop farmers, day old chicks and feeds for poultry farmers, juveniles and feeds for fish farmers, goats for livestock farmers, grinding machines for women processors and motorized produce threshers for groups of unemployed youths.