The World Bank has excluded Nigeria from the list of beneficiary countries for the US $315 million fund for African countries to support food security.
The US $315M is the second phase of the West Africa regional Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP-2) approved in International Development Association (IDA) financing will benefit an additional two million Africans- from Chad, Ghana and Sierra Leone.
The new financing plan is set to will help to increase the effectiveness of agriculture and food crises prevention and management and strengthen the capacities to adapt to climate variability and change.
Food reserve systems
The financing plan is also expected to strengthen the adaptive capacity of the food system’s productive base and make it sustainable, and support the regional food market’s integration by linking the beneficiary countries, consolidating their food reserve systems, and strengthening the development of strategic regional value chains.
Nigeria was also not part of the first phase of the programme, FSRP-1, $330 million approved in November 2021 launched in June 2022, bringing together four countries-Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Togo.
Annual commitments by International Development Association (IDA) have averaged about $18 billion over the last three years, with about 54 per cent going to Africa. The World Bank explained that the FSRP-2 will support the beneficiary countries to increase their preparedness against food insecurity and improve the resilience of their food systems.
