Nigeria Misses World Bank’s $645m Food Security Fund For W/African Countries

World Bank has approved Chad, Ghana and Sierra Leone as the beneficiaries of the $315 million in the second phase of the West Africa regional Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP-2).

FSPR -2 is under the International Development Association (IDA) financing and it is to benefit an additional two million Africans from the three countries.

The program is a follow-up to the $330 million FSRP-1 which was approved in November 2021 and launched in June 2022. Four countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Togo were the beneficiaries.

Nigeria is not approved for the two stages of the project for which a total of $645 million has been earmarked to help to increase the effectiveness of agriculture and food crisis prevention, to manage and strengthen the capacities to adapt to climate variability and change.

Annual commitments by International Development Association (IDA) have averaged about $18 billion over the last three years, with about 54 per cent going to Africa and the FSRP-2 will support the three beneficiary countries to increase their preparedness against food insecurity and improve the resilience of their food systems.

The financing plan was also expected to strengthen the adaptive capacity of the food system’s productive base and make it sustainable and support the regional food market’s integration by linking the beneficiary countries, consolidating their food reserve systems, and strengthening the development of strategic regional value chains.

This program will indeed bridge the huge food gap, coming at a moment when it is projected that approximately 38.3 million people in West Africa are facing a food security crisis.

Across the targeted areas in the three countries, FSRP-2 will help to reduce food insecure people by 25 per cent by improving access to hydro and agrometeorological advisory services which will be extended to over 400,000 food system actors, while nearly 500,000 producers are expected to adopt climate-smart agricultural technologies.

Under the program, about 12,000 hectares of the land area will benefit from integrated landscape management practices and intra-regional traded production in selected value chains that will increase by 30 per cent.

The Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Massandjé Toure-Litse said: “Multiple shocks, driven by climate change and environmental degradation, weaknesses of the food markets, conflicts and insecurity, Covid-19 implications, and the war in Ukraine have further deteriorated food insecurity and inflation across West Africa.”

Also, World Bank’s Vice-President for Western and Central Africa, Ousmane Diagana said: “FSRP-2 further expands cooperation across the ECOWAS region to ensure food security, now and into the future. Facilitating the trade of agricultural goods and inputs within and across national borders in West Africa is a key element to address food insecurity in the region.”

World Bank’s Director for Regional Integration for Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East,t and Northern Africa, Boutheina Guermazi added that the approval of FSRP-2 and incorporation of Chad, Ghan, and Sierra Leone expands impacts, not just one national activity, but targeted spill-over effects from regional activities.

He said: “We are eager for this innovative program to maximize its reach across the West.”