Water: FG Approves $945m Loan For Rivers, Others

The Federal Government has approved three foreign loans totaling $945m to improve irrigation system and prevent flooding in Ibadan, Oyo State; and also provide water for Bauchi, Ekiti and Rivers states.
At the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by the Vice President,Arc. Namadi Sambo, the government  also approved four road projects totaling N22bn.
Minister of Special Duties, Taminu Turaki; Minister of State, Finance, Bashir Yuguda; Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe; Minister of  Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwunmi Adesina, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Stephen Oru briefed State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.
Yuguda said the first of the five memoranda presented to the council by his ministry for approval was the one on the International Development Association’s credit of $495m for proposed irrigation management.
He said the idea behind the facility was to upscale what the Federal Government had been doing in improving the irrigation system to ensure year-round farming season in the country.
“Part of the fund under this IDA credit is to upscale the cultivation of the irrigatable land in the country. Currently, we have an estimated 2.2 million hectares of potentially irrigatable land in the country out of which about 1million hectares is situated in the Northern part,” he said.
Yuguda also said the council approved $200m loan to arrest the frequent flooding in Ibadan, Oyo State.
He said, “We have all been witnessing the floods that have happened in Ibadan, the first one was in 1980 and the second one in 2011. Some remedial works were carried out to avert future occurrence of flooding in the city but we believe, with this credit facility of $200m, we will be able 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.”
The minister also disclosed that the council approved another $250m for the proposed third national urban water sector reform project and explained that the Federal Government would take the facility and lend it to Bauchi, Ekiti and Rivers states.
He said the project would be implemented over a period of six years and that its components included water sector governance, institutional frame work and human capital development, sector wide improvement and project management at the federal level and sector reforms on water.
He added that the facility would address the increasing demand on water in the affected states.