Freezing Account and Conter-Part Payment for all Agric Donor-Partners in Nigeria

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

 

 

NCARD (45)

SEPTEMBER 2022                                                                   MEMO NO ——

 

MEMORANDUM TO THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT ON ACCOUNT FREEZING AND PAYMENT OF COUNTERPART FUND AS PROVIDED IN THE FINANCIAL AGREEMENT OF DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS.

 

MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BY THE PROJECTS COORINATING UNIT (PCU)

 

            The purpose of this memorandum is to inform Council of the need to address the emerging problem of account freezing and payment of counterpart funs to agricultural donor assisted projects by the government. This memo equally seeks to inform council that delay in Project execution and payment of counterpart funds affects implementation of the Project and achievement of results and outcomes.

Background  

The mandate of the Project Coordinating Unit (PCU) is to coordinate and supervise development partner-funded projects and Programmes, review status of on-going and closed Projects /programmes; prepare and negotiate upcoming projects/programmes; collaborate with development partners and any other duties as assigned by the Permanent Secretary.

The idea of result oriented Agricultural Donor Funded Development Partner Projects in Nigeria is an offshoot of the concept of integrated agricultural and rural development in the early 70’s with the support of international partners. The donor projects are meant to compliment the effort of government for sustainable and resource efficient intensification and improvement of agribusiness productivity and the improvement of the supply of raw materials to processing plants.

Overtime the commitment of notable International Development Agencies such as the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), African Development Bank (AfDB), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank (WB) etc. are driven with the new concept of supporting agriculture from Farm to Table approach entitled “Value Chain Development (VCD) Theory”. Today value chain  lead to the actualization of result based projects such as the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES), Rural Financing project (RUFIN), Agricultural Transformation Support Programme phase one (ATASP-I), Value Chain Development Project (VCDP), Agro-Processing Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support Project (APPEALS), Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise for Niger Delta (LIFE-ND), Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ), and  Livestock Productivity Resilience Support  project (L-PRES) and many more.

The donor projects over the years have yielded a remarkable result in the development of agri-business hubs in Nigeria. This is evident in the area of food security, job creation, youth employment, rural development and economic diversification. From 2015 till date, ATASP-I, VCDP-AF, APPEALS and LIFE-ND had contributed about 3,666,851 decent jobs, 196 Market Stall/Stores, 16 block of classrooms with toilets & health centers, 2,081 Commodity Aggregation, Cottage Processing and storage facilities constructed, 2,642.8 km rural access road constructed, 250 Tube-wells, 120 bridges, 210 culverts, 724 solar-powered boreholes constructed. The total contribution to national food basket is in the following order: Cassava -1,326,699MT, Wheat-3,960mt, Rice-1,027,717MT, Tomato-36,163mt – Maize-3,308mt, Cashew-3,253mt, Ginger-15,554mt, Cocoa-154.39mt, Sorghum – 106,070.7MT, Poultry meat- 191,336kg, Poultry egg-9,153 crates, Catfish and Tilapia -161,820kg. With SAPZ and L-PRESS projects coming on board, the statistics would tend to double.

However, some states have frozen the accounts of some of the project/programme and are equally not releasing their counterpart funds as at when due not minding the negative impact of the situation.   

Prayers

Council is therefore invited to kindly note that:

  1. the Projects Coordinating Unit (PCU) is mandated to coordinate and supervise all agricultural development partner-funded projects and support programmes, these intervention projects have created millions of jobs, wealth creation, increased production and productivity, enhance competitiveness of the private sectors towards export , capacity building, poverty reduction, improved food security, reduction in youth restiveness as well as sustainable agricultural development and increase foreign exchange earnings.
  1. The international donor assisted projects have significantly contributed to the actualization of agriculture as a business in Nigeria, agricultural infrastructural development and improved institutional capacities
  2. Development partners projects are time bound with life span for implementation. The need for timely release of counterpart funds becomes important and the avoidance of attempts to interfere in operations is equally important to aid facilitation.
  3. The various governments should create as a matter of urgency yearly budget a provision for counterpart funds of donor funded projects.
  4. The management teams of these programs should liaise with their principals for ease of implementation of their Annual Workplan and Budget (AWPB) by inauguration of Project steering committee.
  5. All tiers of Governments to regularly and timely fulfill financial obligations on Donor assisted agricultural projects as provided in the Financial Agreement especially the Counter-part fund.

Projects Coordinating Unit (PCU)

FMARD, ABUJA