The African Development Bank (ADB) is to spend over N500 million to boost the capacity of agricultural extension service officers and community-based intervention projects in Bauchi State.

Alhaji Saleh Yahaya, the state Project Officer of the bank’s Community-based Agricultural and Rural Development Programme (CBARDP), said this on Thursday in Bauchi in an interview with newsmen.

He said that the bank had so far disbursed over N150 million to the state to fast-track the implementation of the programme. He said the funds were part of releases made to the state since the commencement of the programme in 2007.

He said the programme was a joint arrangement between the bank, the Federal Government, Bauchi State Government, nine selected local government areas as well as the benefiting local communities.

According to him, the bank would contribute 81 per cent of the total cost of the programme, Bauchi State Government would contribute 9 per cent, the nine participating LGAs would contribute 6 per cent, while the benefiting communities would contribute 1 per cent in kind, not in cash. “The beauty of the programme is that the communities were allowed to select and execute projects of their choices.

“The projects are also socially inclusive and gender sensitive where women are active participants, he said, adding that more than 30 per cent of the bank”s intervention activities have been reserved for women in the participating LGAs. The project officer listed livestock fattening, poultry, fish farming, provisions of kerosene-drive incubators, sewing and knitting machines as among the income generating activities under the programme intervention.

Yahaya said that more than 99 agricultural extension officers had so far been trained and re-trained since 2007 when the programme took off in Bauchi.

In a separate interview  Alhaji Ilyasu Gital, Programme Manager, Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme (BSADP) disclosed that the state government had so far spent over N66 million as its counterpart funding for the programme since its inception in 2007.
Gital said that the nine participating LGAs had also contributed over N35.9 million during the last four years.