From Okwe Obi, Abuja

About four million Nigerians are to benefit from the United Kingdom funded project, Propcom+, through increased access to bio-fortified seeds, veterinary vaccination and strengthening of agribusinesses.

 The programme, which commenced in 2023 under the sponsorship of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, (FCDO), has an initial funding of £95 million and hopes to leverage £122 million in private funding.

Political Director and Country Representative of Propcom+, Dr Adiya Ode, disclosed in a statement, after a one-day learning event organised by Propcom+ for agribusiness owners, agricultural market actors, policymakers, and farmers on its interventions in Northern Nigeria.

Ode said the objective of Propcom+ was to transform the rural economy, improve agricultural productivity and resilience of people who depend on agriculture for a livelihood, as well as reduce emissions and conflicts over natural resources.

According to her, the organisation aims to achieve that objective by stimulating markets through its market systems development approach.

 “We are implementing for 8 years. We are in our second year and the programme will close in 2030.

“By the time the programme closes, we hope to have impacted the lives and improved the incomes of four million Nigerians.

“That’s an ambitious target but we know that working with our partners, we can achieve this target.

“We also have a financial target. We hope that the funding for Propcom+, which is £95 million, would leverage £122 million in private financing,” she said.

On his part, Propcom+’s Strategy Director, Mr Olamide Ojo, said the organisation had a robust basket of programmes to implement policies, regulations, laws, formal or informal, to work with business actors to make good use of the business environment.