UK fulfils COP27 pledge, launches £95m climate fund for Nigeria

The UK government has launched a £95 million Propcom+ international climate finance project to improve the climate resilience of Nigerians.

The fund is also expected to help the vulnerable adapt to the effects of climate change.

In November 2022, TheCable reported that at COP27 in Egypt, James Cleverly, UK’s foreign minister, said the government will provide a £95 million investment to support the development of climate-resilient agriculture programmes in Nigeria. 

In a statement on Wednesday, the UK high commission said the fund was officially launched with a £55 million contract and £2.89 million grant announced as part of the overall investment. 

The project which will build on the Propcom Mai-karfi programme which ended in March 2022, will raise investments in agriculture and support four million people, most of whom will be women, “to adopt and scale sustainable agricultural practices that increase productivity and climate resilience”.

The new practice will also help in reducing emissions and protecting natural ecosystems.

“UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has officially announced the launch of its programme, Propcom+ supporting climate and growth by addressing environmental, social, and economic challenges in the country’s food and land-use system,” the statement reads. 

“A £55 million contract and £2.89m grant were announced, as part of the £95m Propcom+ eight-year UK international climate finance programme aimed at supporting climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture and forestry that benefits people, climate, and nature.

“The programme aims to support more than four million people, 50 percent of whom will be women, to adopt and scale sustainable agricultural practices that increase productivity and climate resilience while reducing emissions and protecting natural ecosystems.

“Propcom+ builds on the UK government’s investment in agriculture through the Propcom Mai-karfi programme which ended in March 2022 after supporting over 1.25 million persons with improved incomes through key market reforms and policies that benefited poor women and men in Northern Nigeria.

“UK foreign secretary James Cleverly also highlighted how UK support will be helping to unlock $210 million of financing from the African Development Bank (AFDB) for participating Nigerian states for the development of critical infrastructure and related activities under the special agro-industrial processing zones (SAPZ) programme.”

‘THE PROGRAMME WILL IMPROVE FOOD SECURITY’ 

Richard Montgomery, the British high commissioner to Nigeria, said the programme will help increase the productivity of smallholder farmers, improve food security, enhance climate resilience, and pursue lower emissions.

“Tackling the effects of climate change and lowering emissions is a key priority for the UK government and we remain committed to building sustainable pro-poor climate-resilient growth in Nigeria through the new Propcom+ programme which will address environmental, social and economic challenges in the country’s food and land-use systems,” Montgomery was quoted as saying. 

“It will do this by working through strategic market actors to increase the productivity of smallholder farmers, improve nutrition and food security, enhance climate resilience, pursue lower emissions, and protect and restore nature, while also tackling some of Nigeria’s underlying drivers of conflict and insecurity.”  

Also, Adiya V. Ode, Propcom+’s political director and country representative, said the programme “will work as a market facilitator to identify constraints in market systems”.

Ode added that Propcom+ will implement interventions through three broad-based interlinked pillars.

“Pillar one will scale up a focused basket of proven climate-smart interventions around agriculture and primary processing/storage practices/models for adoption by millions of poor and vulnerable smallholder farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs using a market systems approach,” Propcom+’s political director said.

“Pillar two will build, pilot and scale new business models that improve productivity, enhance resilience to climate change, reduce emissions and improve nutrition outcomes and pillar three will seek to support a strengthened enabling environment for sustainable food and land-use systems through enabling policies.” 

The new programme, which kicked off in May is implemented by The Palladium Group with an initial focus on select states including, Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna, Edo, and Cross River.