Governor Yahaya Secures AfDB Parnership For Gombe’s Agro-Allied Development, Livelihood Projects

The Director General of the AfDB, Nigeria Country Department, Mr Lamin Barrow, made the commitment when he received Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya at the AfDB office in Abuja.

Mr. Barrow restated AfDB’s resolve to support Governor Yahaya’s drive to improve the quality of life of the people of Gombe State by increasing access of the poor and vulnerable segments of the populations to basic social services in water, sanitation, hygiene, health and education, as well as restoring livelihoods and strengthening food security and safety nets of the citizens in line with the IBSDLEIP objectives.

On the Special Agro Processing Zone, Mr.  Barrow observed that Gombe State had the potential of transforming the agriculture sector into a viable business enterprise that will not only satisfy local needs, but international market as well.

He therefore gave the assurance of the AfDB’s commitment to supporting the state’s endeavour to promote increased productivity, value addition, market access and private sector investment in agricultural value chain commodities like soybeans, maize, cotton, and sesame seeds among others.

“Our focus on the SAPZ is on the promotion of commodities that have a high potential to boost export revenues or import substitution. The programme is designed to enhance complementarity with existing or completed projects financed by the AfDB including those in the power, transport, water and agriculture sectors,” said Mr. Barrow.

He said with its three dams, strategic location, peaceful environment and visionary leadership of the Governor, Gombe State was destined for greatness.

The Director General of AfDB in Nigeria described Governor Yahaya as a development-centric leader with passion and visionary disposition to transform his state.

In the meantime, Governor Yahaya stressed the importance of collaboration between his government and institutions like AfDB in his administration’s drive to transform agriculture into a viable enterprise for local and international markets.

Governor Yahaya told the AfDB executive that Gombe was home to Balanga, Dadinkowa, and Cham Dams, but lamented that Balanga Dam remained underutilization due to a lack of investment.

He also highlighted the state’s vast arable land and its potential to be a foreign earner with proper harnessing.

Governor said despite expressed determination to make the industrial park a hub, noting the progress with signed Memoranda of Understanding, MoU, for rice and tomato processing mills.

He, however, mentioned the need to connect the hydro power plant to the substation for effective use.

“As at today, what remains is only for us to fix our substation to the main transmission unit of the hydro power plant and during the last investment summit we held in October 2022, we were able to sign MoU with six companies two of them have already started a rice mill and a tomato processing mill.”

The Governor also took time to explain the content of the Gombe State Development Agenda known as DEVAGOM which he said is in line with key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on infrastructure, environmental remediation, security, and education.