Business
RUFIN: Edo Assures On Payment Of Counterpart Funds
The Edo Government has pledged to pay its N12 million counterpart contributions to the FGN/IFAD Rural Finance Institution Building (RUFIN) programme ‘’within a matter of days’’ to facilitate project implementation in the state, a statement said.
Mr Abdul Oroh, the Edo Commission for Agriculture and Natural Resources, made the pledge in Benin when he received in audience the Second IFAD/RUFIN Supervision Mission Team.
The team had been going round to validate implementation progress in the 12 beneficiary states. Oroh said the commitment to the funding underscored the government’s fresh emphasis on agriculture..
Edo and Imo have been the only states out of the 12 participating states that had not paid their counterpart funds for 2010, thereby stalling project implementation and, only last week, led to their inability to collect project vehicles from Abuja for their state RUFIN offices.
Earlier, the leader of the team, Mr Dave Odigie, had told the commissioner that the non-payment of counterpart funds by the state was stalling implementation of the programme’s activities.
He said if the development was not addressed, it could lead to the state being delisted and replaced with others already clamouring to join the programme.
Last week, Mrs. Fatima Bamidele, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, implored states to ensure timely payment of their annual counterpart contributions. He also advised states to be resourceful in the management and utilisation of programme facilities for implementation purposes.
“The states indeed have a major role to play in the (RUFIN) programme considering that the RUFIN programme is targeted towards the rural population, a veritable sector of the economy where development initiatives are easily visible and appreciated,’’ she said.
She later distributed project vehicles to RUFIN participating states.
Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary in the Oyo State Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, Mr.I. A. Adetuntan has called on IFAD and RUFIN to consider increasing the number of local governments in the participating states from the current three.
He re-stated the commitment of the state government to the RUFIN programme, pointing out that Oyo was among the first three states to settle their counterpart funds and sign an MoU with the porgramme.
The official added: “the expectations of our people is very high and we hope this will not be shattered.’’
Exchanging views with the IFAD Supervision Mission Team during a courtesy call, Adetuntan also called for the timely establishment of the Microfinance Development Fund to support Microfinance banks under the RUFIN programme.
He explained that the establishment of the fund would facilitate the granting of credit to the various informal Village Savings Groups that had been registered by the RUFIN programme.
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