The Federal Government/International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)-Livelihood Improvement and Family Enterprises in Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) project has commenced orientation for 6,100 rural youth and women.
The beneficiaries emerged from a selection exercise that attracted more than 36,000 applicants under the ongoing Additional Finance (AF) Batch II agribusiness intake.
Dr Abiodun Sanni, National Project Coordinator of FG/IFAD-LIFE-ND, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
Sanni said the orientation would prepare the selected beneficiaries for sustainable agribusinesses across production, processing and marketing value chains.
He said the training would focus on seven priority commodities such as rice, cassava, plantain, oil palm, cocoa, poultry and fishery.
The coordinator said 3,974 new incubatees had also been selected under the first batch of the Additional Finance programme.
According to him, the beneficiaries have received orientation and commenced training at their respective incubation centres.
He said the selection exercise recorded an overall recommendation rate of more than 80 per cent, reflecting the motivation and capacity of the selected rural beneficiaries.
Sanni said the project had introduced intensive enterprise training as a mandatory requirement before final onboarding.
He said the measure was aimed at addressing gaps in technical experience among some applicants.
According to him, the programme covers 10 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in each participating state, with 10 communities covered in each LGA.
Sanni said more than 60 per cent of successfully screened candidates across the six participating states were women.
He said Amaeke Community in Abia recorded 89.3 per cent female participation, while Obingwa and Mbawsi communities recorded 65 per cent.
The six participating states are Abia, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Ondo.
Sanni said the project was also strengthening inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) through collaboration with local organisations representing them.
He said the approach was intended to improve accessibility, advocacy and participation of PWDs in the Batch II agribusiness programme.
Sanni said the current phase of the project, covering 2025 to 2028, was supported by a 32-million-dollar IFAD loan under the additional financing arrangement.
He said the first phase, which ran from 2019 to 2025, comprised a 60-million-dollar IFAD loan, 30-million-dollar parallel financing from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
It also included 3.06 million-dollar counterpart funding from the federal government and 4.9 million dollars from state governments.
Sanni said the initiative would contribute to food security, economic diversification and employment generation through structured agribusiness development.
He said it would also promote knowledge exchange, innovation and sustainable economic opportunities for rural communities.
