The Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement, and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS), Project of the World Bank has launched its 10th Implementation Support Mission in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, southern Nigeria.
APPEALS, which is a World Bank assisted project, is focused on improving the productivity of small and medium scale farmers as well as value addition in priority value chains such as cocoa, cashew, cassava, ginger, tomatoes, poultry, aquaculture, dairy, maize, rice and wheat in key pilot states of Cross River, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos and Kogi.
The World Bank Task Team Leader, Dr Manievel Sene during the launch of the APPEALS 10th Implementation Support Mission in Calabar said that the objective of the mission was to “Assess the project overall implementation status towards the closing date on September 30, 2023 and update the agreed time bound action plan for the project closure.”
Sene explained that the mission would also analyse challenges encountered by the participating states and agree on measures to facilitate the achievement of the project’s development objectives as well as assess compliance with the applicable fiduciary and safeguards requirements amongst others.
Reduce interferences
In his remarks, the National Project Coordinator, Mr. Mohammed Jobdi commended Cross River State for implementation status despite critical setbacks, encouraged the State Coordinating Office to hit the ground running since the Governor Bassey Otu led administration was determined to achieve deadlines before closure.
According to Jobdi, “The project is coming to a closure on the 30th of September 2023. Our mission to Cross River State is very crucial because all donor and World Bank projects have a timeline and we need to complete whatever activities or subprojects that we have within the timeframe.
“I must say that Cross River State has not done badly. But, in terms of infrastructure, which is very critical to support our farmers in the aggregation and cottage processing centers, farm access road and infrastructure support to Agro-business in the project has been delayed. We hope that those remaining infrastructure would be completed before the end of the project,” he said.
The National Project Coordinator reasoned that the participating states governments could fastrack completion of outstanding components by reducing the level of interference and or administrative procedures, which in several cases slowed down the project.
“We want to appeal to States to at least reduce this kinds of interferences because when you have a timeline you may not have the luxury of extension. We are try to avoid a situation where projects will be abandon in the state. So, we urge the state governments to reduce such interferences to the bearest minimum,” he pleaded.
Accelerated completion
In the same vein, the State Project Coordinator , Mr. Marcel Agim, who noted that Cross River State would complete all outstanding components in the next three weeks, said the state achieved over 80 percent implementation.
Agim stated that more than 1,700 women and youths including people living with disabilities have benefited from the APPEALS project, while more that 6,000 farmers across different cooperative societies have enhanced productivity.
On the outstanding components to finish, Agim said, “Cross River State will hit a 100 percent implementation. Thanks to His Excellency, the governor of Cross River State, Senator Bassey Otu, who came and saw our plight and immediately cleared the restrictions to enable us meet up with other states in the project.
“I am assuring of our efforts within the next three weeks. We are going to close strong. The citizens of Cross River have benefited imensely because this project has given them sound training in Agriculture and have registered their companies with Corporate Affairs Commission.
“We have empowered 1,700 person inclusive PWD’s with the requisite training and inputs to run agro-businesses. Then in the aspect of Commodity Interest Group where we have cooperatives, we have so far empowered more than 6,000 farmers in the state based on the priority value chains of rice, poultry and cocoa,” he added.
