Vice President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Michel Mordasini has paid a two-day working visit to the Northern Region.
The visit, according to him was a follow up to President John Dramani Mahama’s recent visit to IFAD’s headquarters in Rome to lobby for enough funding for the agric sector.
The visit offered Michel Mordasini and his team the opportunity to assess projects successfully executed by the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP).
He met with authorities of the Savelugu Municipal Assembly, participated in an exhibition exercise at the forecourt of the Savelugu Municipal Assembly, visited a local soap processing group in Savelugu, visited the Kanvili Women’s Shea Centre and interacted with clients of the Northern Rural Growth Programme.
He later paid courtesy calls on the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna and the Chief Executive Officer of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), Charles Abugri.
Michel Mordasini was impressed with the performance of the NRGP as there was physical evidence to prove that some pro-poor projects were rolled out to promote rural transformation.
He emphasized the need for the NGRP to promote off farm activities to address the bottlenecks hindering rural transformation.
According to him, decentralization and the role of the private sector were very critical in addressing challenges associated with rural transformation.
Michel Mordasini said agriculture which is the economic mainstay of majority of rural dwellers in the Northern Region should be made attractive to the youth.
He lauded the Government of Ghana’s determination to scale up opportunities to assist small holder farmers to improve their livelihood.
Briefing the IFAD Vice President on the performance of the Rural Enterprise Programme in the Savelugu Municipality, the Municipal Coordinator, Alidu Mohammed Amin said the Business Advisory Centre (BAC) reached out to a total number of 482 small scale entrepreneurs in the area comprising 295 females and 187 males.
He said the beneficiary clients were trained in fish processing, shea nut processing and soap making.
He also made known an amount of GHC55, 500.00 matching grant made available to three entrepreneurs to boost guinea fowl rearing, welding and fabrication and agro input supply.
“Another women group in fish processing from Nabogu is to benefit from GHC 10,000.00 from the Export Trade, Agricultural and Industrial Development Fund (EDAIF),” he divulged.
On Agricultural Commodity Processing Infrastructure Development (ACPID), Alidu Mohammed Amin revealed that the assembly acquired a 35 acre land to relocate all artisans in the Municipality.
A Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Alhassan Yakubu reaffirmed government’s commitment to eradicate poverty in rural communities.
He said the ministry will continue to police the nation’s agric policy to ensure that the sector would not be disadvantaged at the district level.
Dr. Alhassan commended IFAD for improving agric infrastructure in the Savelugu Municipality and called for the sustainability of agric projects in the area.
IFAD/GASIP
In view of IFAD’s satisfaction with the NRGP’s performance, the IFAD Board has approved a US $ 46.5 million loan for the implementation of the Ghana Agric Sector Investment Programme (GASIP).
GASIP’s national Coordinator, Roy Ayariga who happened to be the immediate former NRGP national Coordinator divulged this to Citi News.
He said GASIP was awaiting Parliamentary approval though staff recruitment was underway.
Roy Ayariga mentioned some districts in the Eastern, Greater Accra, Western, Brong Ahafo, Central and Volta Regions among others where the GASIP programme will be implemented.
He was optimistic GASIP could complement the achievements gained with the NRGP in Northern Ghana.
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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana