Bill Foundation promises Nigeria $600,000 to finance agriculture

Bill Gates

Bill Foundation promises Nigeria $600,000 to finance agriculture

Nigeria and three other African countries will in the next two years, receive 600,000 dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to finance agriculture.

An official of Action Aid of Nigeria, an NGO and the Programme Officer for ‘Right to Food', Mrs Constance Okeke, said this while speaking with reporters in Abuja, the nation’s capital..

Empowering women farmers

Okeke said the project, which was being coordinated by the organisation's office in the US would push government to invest more in agriculture and small holder farmers.

Okeke said that the money would be utilised to empower women farmers, who she noted, held the key to unlocking the continent's agriculture potential.

“A significant part of our strategic plan includes helping over 10,000 poor women farmers to gain access to knowledge, tools and capital, to lift themselves and their families out of poverty”, she said.

Agricultural policies

Okeke said that the project was also intended to build the capacity of women farmers to understand agricultural policies and budgeting processes so that they could properly track and ask questions on agriculture financing.

She said that a recent report by the FAO indicated that smallholder farmers in Africa produced 80 per cent of the food consumed in the continent, adding that more than 70 per cent of the farmers were women.

“The FAO has said that if poor women in rural areas have the same access to education, training, empowerment, modern technology and finance as men, agriculture will be increased by four per cent in developing countries'', Okeke said.

 She appealed to stakeholders to collaborate to assist women farming families to boost their yields and incomes, to enable them overcome hunger and poverty.

Action Aid

The programme officer said that Action Aid was supporting the Right to Food Programme for women in seven states in Nigeria.

She listed the states to include Gombe, Bauchi, Kwara, Ondo, Delta, Kogi, Ebonyi and the FCT, adding that the programme would be extended to more states before the end of 2012.

She said Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya would also benefit from the funding.

NAN/Shakira/Ekata