The Federal Government has approved the use of the $495 million (about N77 billion) credit it secured from the International Development Association (IDA) to boost irrigation nationwide.
The Minister of State for Finance, Alhaji Bashir Yuguda, stated this when he briefed State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by Vice-President Namadi Sambo.
According to him, the facility is to augment what the Federal Government is doing to improve irrigation throughout the year.
“The first memo is on the approval of an International Development Association’s credit of $495 million for the proposed irrigation management.
“The idea about this facility is to upscale what the Federal Government is doing in improving the irrigation system so that we will have year-in-year-out farming season in the country.
“Part of the fund under this IDA credit is to upscale the cultivation of the irrigable land in the country.
“Currently, we have an estimated 2.2million hectares of potentially irrigable land in the country out of which about one million hectares are situated in the Northern parts,“ he said.
Yuguda said the facility, to be managed by the Ministry of Water Resources, had four components.
He said that out of the sum, $81 million would be spent on Water Resource Management and Dam Operation Improvement just as $294 million would be used for Irrigation Development and Management.
He said that while $38 million would be used to enhance agricultural productivity and support the value chain development, $30 million would be spent on governance and institutional framework.
According to him, $52 million will be set aside as contingency funds.
Commenting on the IDA credit, the Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Ochekpe, said the loan would be used to upscale the cultivation of the irrigable land in the country.
Ochekpe added that part of the loan would be used to rehabilitate the Bakolori Dam and the Irrigation Scheme in Zamfara.
“We are talking about the rehabilitation of the dam, which has an existing 8,000 hectares irrigation scheme, recovering the over 1,557 hectares lost due to poor drainage and converting 13,000 hectares of abandoned areas.
“The facility is on five years grace period, repayment period of 20 years and a service charge of 0.75 per cent and interest rate of 1.25 per cent per annum and commitment fee of 0.5 per cent per annum,“ she said.
Ochekpe expressed optimism that 50,000 hectares of land would be improved for cultivation over a period of seven years.
She said the project involved five irrigation schemes across the country with the major beneficiaries being the river basin stakeholders, the irrigation and drainage entities and the water users’ associations nationwide.
“In each of the irrigation schemes, we expect that 550 multiple secondary and tertiary level water user associations will be strengthened with different capacity and skills in managing water resources for improvement in their agricultural activities.
“About 140 farming families at the average of 12 persons per family would be involved in this project.
“We expect that the villages within the catchment areas of the project will also benefit from a cross range of activities that will be undertaken in the cause of implementing this project.
“We expect that over 10 million people will benefit from the flood emergency information system and flood forecasting tools that would be developed within the three hydrological basins where the projects are sited.
“One major benefit of the project that we expect is the increase in the incomes of the households that will be participating.
“We expect that their incomes will rise from N259,000 annually to N781,000.
“This would be about three times more than that of farmers operating within non-project area,“ she said.
She said the council also approved the use of a $200 million loan to address the persistent flooding in Ibadan city while another $250 million was approved to address the challenges of urban water sector in Bauchi, Ekiti, and Rivers.
“Some remedial works were carried out to avert the future occurrence of flooding in the city but we believe this credit facility of $200 million is to arrest the frequent flooding within the Ibadan city.
“The idea is to work with the Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Agriculture in order to arrest the situation.
“We believe with this credit facility coming, the Federal Government will be able to assess the situation,“ she stated.
She said the urban water sector project would be implemented over a period of six years to address the increasing demand on water in the affected states
According to her, the project is coming up because of the successes recorded in the first and second urban water sector reform projects executed in Lagos, Cross River, Enugu, Ogun, and Kaduna states
She said already, six projects had been completed or rehabilitated in Kaduna state, six in Ogun, two in Enugu state, one in Cross River and 10 in Lagos state.
The minister, therefore, expressed the hope that the project would improve water supply access by the urban populace and ensure healthier population because of access to potable water.
Also addressing the correspondents, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Dr  Stephen Oru, said the council approved N22.2 billion for the construction of four roads in the Niger Delta region.
He identified the roads as the Mbaise Ring Road intersecting and Owerri-Umuahia Road in Imo State (N6.17 billion) and the Calabar-Oban-Nsan-Okoroba-Ajassor Road in Cross River (N9.067 billion).
Others are the Phase 1 of Mbak Mkpeti-Itu-Okoita-Arochukwu Road in Abia, Cross River and Akwa Ibom (N3.55 billion) with a completion period of 24 months and the Mbak Atai-Ikot-Ntu-Mkpeti-Okuiboku Road in Akwa Ibom to be constructed at N3.2 billion, with a completion period of 18 months.