AfDB approves $50m loan to support climate resilience, food security in Yobe

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $50 million loan facility to support climate change resilience, improve livelihoods and boost food security in Yobe state. 

In a statement on Tuesday, the bank said its board of directors approved the loan to support the state’s environment and climate change action plan (ECCAP), which will eventually improve the livelihoods of over 3.5 million people.

The project which would cost an estimated $101.34 million, would be co-financed by the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) which is expected to provide $30 million, while the Yobe state government will contribute $4.52 million in counterpart funding, and project beneficiaries will also contribute $16.82 million.

Yobe is ranked as one of the states in Nigeria most vulnerable to climate change, with 72 percent of its population living below the poverty line.

The state’s economic challenges have, over the years, caused protracted inter-communal conflicts, especially between herder and farming communities.

Insurgents have aggravated the fragile environmental situation of the state, further plunging it into rapid economic decline.

AfDB is of the view that the ECCAP will support the federal and state governments in their efforts to respond to the challenges of droughts and desertification, empower women by supplying ruminants, and providing cooking stoves to develop micro, small and medium-size enterprises, among other interventions.

The bank said the implementation of a payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme will incentivise the population to plant and maintain 20 million drought-resistant trees, maintain 2 million regenerated trees, as well as support payments for labour and related services.

Speaking during the approval of the project, Akinwumi Adesina, AfDB group president, said the project will help tackle insecurity, climate vulnerability, food insecurity and build resilient livelihoods.

“This is a very practical and granular project that tackles the issues of insecurity, more generally vulnerability, but also food security, and restoration of the degraded environment,” he said.

“It is all about how we build resilient livelihoods. This is a project that shows how we can do that in an integrated way.”

Lamin Barrow, director general of the bank’s Nigeria country department, said key interventions in reforestation will contribute to removing carbon emissions and reducing climate shocks.

“With the key interventions in afforestation and reforestation contributing to carbon sequestration, this green project will help reduce vulnerability to climate shocks, build the resilience of the target population,” Barrow said.

“It will also boost Nigeria’s efforts to meet its African Forestry Landscape Restoration Initiative goal to restore 4 million hectares of land degraded by climate change, a regional and global public good, and Sustainable Development Goals 13 and 15 targets.”

Martin Fregene, director of the bank’s agriculture and agro-industry department, said the ECCAP project seeks to ensure sustainability in livelihood-enhancing projects.

“The project will lead to the improvement of the vegetative cover of the state with more than 20 million established trees over 120,000 hectares, and will train selected youth and women to set up 3,560 new MSMEs,” Fregene said.

“These MSMEs will process and market new products using raw materials from trees, such as neem oil, and introduce improved clean cooking stoves and clean cooking technologies targeting 10% of the population.”

With a portfolio of about 50 operations amounting to $4.6 billion across Nigeria, the AfDB’s project complements the bank’s and other development partners’ ongoing and planned projects on climate change.