Nigeria seeks AfDB support for Great Green Wall, SAPZ

The Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, has solicited the support of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in funding the National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW).

The minister made the request during a bilateral meeting with AfDB’s President, Sidi Ould Tah, on the sidelines of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), in New York.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was at the instance of Vice President Kashim Shettima.

NAN also reports that the agency was established to address land degradation and desertification, boost food security, and support communities in adapting to climate change in Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe, Borno, and Adamawa.

It serves as the Nigerian focal point for the actualisation of the vision of the African Union’s Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel project.

The mission of the NAGGW is to halt and reverse land degradation, prevent depletion of biological diversity, ensure that by 2025, ecosystems are resilient to climate change, and continue to provide essential services that contribute to human welfare and poverty eradication.

The minister said, “I want to appeal for the extension of your support to Nigeria’s National Agency for Great Green Wall.

“The agency is responsible for fencing the Sahelian part of Africa to prevent desertification.

“I also want to plead that you should look at what we have done so far in trying to address environmental degradation in the 11 frontline States in Nigeria.

“We have already submitted our proposal to the Ministry of Finance on the issue of clean cooking policy, which is also directly linked to the afforestation process.

“That, also, is important because it is trying to address two issues of deforestation and health. When you go to the rural areas, most women cook with firewood, and that often exposes them to health issues, and even affects the children.”

Also, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development of Nigeria, Ahmed Dangiwa, appealed to the AFDB boss to support the ministry in addressing the housing deficit.

He added that the housing sub-sector needed a lot of funding, saying, “We want your intervention in terms of construction of housing development in Nigeria.

“Because there is a very high return on investment in Nigeria if you are investing in agric, health, and education.

“Housing is key sector to draw up a framework to ensure that you fund affordable housing for the population of the country.”

Responding, AfDB’s president assured that under his leadership, he would waste no effort in making the bank provide Nigeria with the support it deserves in terms of developing its human capital.

“My vision for the bank is not a lending institution, it is a catalyst institution with which to mobilise resources, capital from all over the world to bring.

“I hope we can really bring capital to the continent to make transformation of our continent and bring value to agricultural sector. ”

Nigeria also seeks support on SAPZ

The Nigerian government also solicited the support of the AfDB in the funding of phase two of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ).

Mr Shettima made the request during a bilateral meeting with Mr Tah on the sidelines of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), in New York.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that SAPZ Phase Two is expected to scale up climate-resilient infrastructure and inclusive agro-industrial growth across an additional 24 states.

It will expand from the initial eight states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to diversify Nigeria’s mono-product economy to a value-added agricultural export.

The vice president averred that Nigeria was the largest shareholder in AfDB, while the country’s portfolio hovers in the neighbourhood of over $10 billion.

“We urge you to further support us in the phase 2 Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ). You assisted us with $300 million when you were in Liberia.

“We want to thank you, but, like Oliver Twist, we are asking for more because we are poised to diversify our mono-product economy into agriculture, especially value-added agricultural exports.

“And we have the potential, with all due respect, your Excellency, in all the agro-ecological zones in Nigeria.

“From the mangrove swamps forest in the South to the Sahelian region in the far North, you can virtually grow anything.

“In states like Kebbi, you can plant money, and if money can grow, it shows that the soil is fertile,” he stated.

Seeking AfDB’s support for SAPZ, the second phase of Nigeria’s green legacy initiative, Mr Shettima pointed to the relationship between the economy and ecology in the Sahel region.

“We are from the same part of the world, essentially same terrain, same geography, and same challenges, especially challenges of armed banditry and extremism.

”So, we want to solicit your support; our doors are ever open,” he added.

Mr Shettima asserted that Nigeria was hungry for development because Nigerian youths were eager to be co-opted into the workforce of the 21st century.
He assured that young Nigerians have the entrepreneurial zeal and passion enough to be captured in the workforce of the 21st century.

The vice president implored the AfDB chief to also look into the issue of the bank’s support for innovation-driven enterprises, instead of only MSMEs.

He said that the digital space offered a vista of opportunity for Africa’s development.

“And we can catalyse and accelerate the digital space in Africa for Nigeria, and we can have deep tech enterprises to come out of Africa.

“Of the eight unicorns in Africa, five are from Nigeria – Moniepoint, Jummia, and the rest. We want to once again reiterate that we are with you, we are for you, and we will stand by you,” he said.

Responding, AfDB’s boss assured that under his leadership, he would waste no effort in making the bank provide Nigeria with the support it deserves in terms of developing its human capital.

“My vision for the bank is not a lending institution, it is a catalyst institution with which to mobilise resources, capital from all over the world to bring.

“I hope we can really bring capital to the continent to make transformation of our continent and bring value to the agricultural sector.

“This is why my four cardinal points are: mobilise large-scale capital through partnerships, reforming Africa’s financial architecture, converting the continent’s demographic dividend into economic strength for job creation.

“These points form my roadmap to guide the bank’s strategy and accelerate Africa’s development, and I’m confident that with your support, the bank will be able to bring transformation to the continent,” the AfDB president said.

Earlier, Mr Shettima held a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Terrance Drew, with both leaders recommitting to strengthening economic and cultural ties.

He assured Mr Drew that President Bola Tinubu was determined to rekindle friendship and brotherhood between both nations.

He said: “Going forward, we should have a robust engagement and understanding. We should stand by each other. We should stand for one another.

“We should stand on each other’s interests.

“For St. Kitts and Nevis, and Nigeria, what binds us together supersedes whatever divides us.

“Majority of the population of the Caribbean are of African descent. A chunk of them are English-speaking countries. Quite a large number of them belong to the Commonwealth.

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“So, the commonalities we share are so high, but contact has been low, relative to what it ought to be.

“So, your Excellency, I want to assure you that my boss is very kin in rekindling that friendship, that sense of brotherhood and sisterhood, and see to it that going forward, we should have a robust engagement and understanding.”

Mr Shettima further recalled that Tinubu was in Saint Lucia earlier in the year as part of his broader package of reaching out to the Caribbean Africans in diaspora.

“The president had also established contact with our brothers in Brazil. The largest African population in the world outside of Nigeria is found in Brazil,” the vice president said.

On his part, Mr Drew, who decried the low level of trade and contact between Caribbean countries and Africa, expressed the country’s readiness to work closely with the Nigerian Government to boost trade on the African continent.

(NAN)