By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
The project implementation unit of the World Bank financed Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL), has sought for extention of the Six-year project through additional financing.
The disclosure was made by the Bauchi State ACReSAL Project Coordinator, Dr Ibrahim Kabiru, while fielding questions from Journalists on the sideline of the 5-day hybrid additional financing (AF) / Pre-Appraisal Mission meeting held at the Ahmadu Bello International Conference Centre (ICC) in Bauchi, on Monday
He said that, “Hybrid Additional Financing for ACReSAL, what this means is that the Project is now about four years old. It has a lifespan of six years. We conducted our MTR, or midterm review in the last few months, and we realized that most of the projects that we have started will be likely not be completed because we have already exhausted the money that has been budgeted for the six years partnership.”
According to him,”So based on the MTR and the performances of the 19 Northern States and FCT, ACReSAL team liaised with the Federal Government, which is the borrower, and also reached out to the World Bank, the lender, and agreed that the Project be extended through additional financing.”
Ibrahim Kabiru added that, “At this point, we are not sure what awards we can get from the World Bank. So we need to gather, across all the States, together, and that’s why we have started here in Bauchi, to discuss about those areas that require this money and those requirements that are needed from the 19 Northern States and FCT to participate in the additional financing.”
The PC further said, “So, the 19 Northern States and FCT are here in Bauchi with their leaderships, the World Bank team, all the three Task Teams Leaders. (TTLs) are here in Bauchi, and the National Office headed by National Project Coordinator are also here, to spend five days, starting from today up to Friday, to review our previous performances, look at our proposals, what we have already done, what are the projects that we want to upscale, our projects, the components of ACReSAL.”
He said, “This is the rationale behind this engagement, and we are hoping that at the end of this engagement by Friday, we will be able to have a clear picture of what are we going to expect from the World Bank, what is the step going to implement, what is the step have done, so that they can be allowed to upscale. So we are all here to discuss about the additional financing for ACReSAL project.”
On the selection of Bauchi State as one of the best project implementation States, he said, “it’s very simple, the Governir, Sen Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed has already mentioned it, ACReSAL implementation started here in Bauchi on 28th of May 2023. Bauchi was the first state that launched it across all 19 Northern States and FCT.”
“And precisely, if I can put it on record, the World Bank and also the Federal Government can tell you that we implemented a lot of projects under ACReSAL that were among the most performing states. And that’s why the World Bank and also the Federal Government decided to come to Bauchi for this appraisal,”he added.
According to him, We are not going to stay entirely in the hall. We are going to visit so many locations to see the tangible projects that were executed. And Bauchi is among the states that has these tangible projects that we have visited, and they can serve as a back-up to get additional financing, and that’s the essence of coming to Bauchi for this additional financing.”
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