The Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Project in the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) funded by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has stretched its reach to 46 new communities for it’s second batch enrolment of beneficiaries on the agric entrepreneurial empowerment in Rivers state.

The Agric Business Promotions Officer for LIFE-ND in the state, JD Horsfall, disclosed this as the project team concludes sensitisation of the new communities, heralding second batch beneficiaries selection in Rivers.

Horsfall said, “For this past week, we sensitised 46 communities as part of the second batch. The first batch covered 20 communities across five pioneer LGAs, and those beneficiaries are already undergoing training at the incubation centres”.

“Now, we’ve expanded the programme to three more LGAs, bringing the total to eight, and we’re reaching more communities within the initial LGAs as well.

“We dropped three sets of posters in every community, one explaining the project, another calling for trainers (incubators) and the last calling for interested trainees (incubatees) in cassava, poultry, plantain and aquaculture”.

Instituted in 2019, LIFE-ND project, adopting the incubation model, engages established agro-entrepreneurs (incubators) to create more entrepreneurs by grooming young people and women (incubatees) to grow in business opportunities across the agribusiness value chain in the Niger Delta.

The aim is to create jobs, improve food security and enhance rural livelihoods through sustainable agribusiness, ultimately to enhance peace and raise living standard in the region.

It is jointly implemented by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), IFAD, and NDDC, targeting 38,250 beneficiaries among the nine Niger Delta states.

IFAD funds implementation in six states of the region excluding Akwa Ibom, Imo, and Rivers were NDDC is providing the funds.

NDDC facilitated states began implementation in 2024 with initial $5Million funding commitment to the project structured into two phases over a 12-year cycle targeting 4,250 beneficiaries per state during with first six-year.

On the batch 2 enrollment in Rivers, Horsfall explained that the next stage would involve validating facilities and readiness of incubators, followed by selection of incubatees.

Sensitisation on the second batch ran from 25th March to 2nd April 2025, a crucial step in identifying new trainers and trainees to sustain the momentum of rural agri-entrepreneurship development across participating communities.