A civil society group has backed the proposed $500 million additional financing for the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) project, saying the funds would help expand climate resilience, restore degraded land and strengthen livelihoods across northern Nigeria.
The Think Nigeria First Initiative said the additional financing was justified by the progress recorded under the World Bank-supported programme, which operates across 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The proposed funding would increase ACReSAL’s financing from its original $700 million to $1.2 billion. The World Bank’s project document shows that the additional funds are intended to support landscape restoration, watershed rehabilitation, climate-resilient agriculture, community resilience and institutional strengthening.
The group said the project had restored 818,546 hectares of degraded land and reached about 4.4 million direct beneficiaries. Earlier government figures from the project’s mid-term review put the number of direct beneficiaries at 9.3 million, indicating that reported results have continued to expand as implementation progresses.
The proposed financing comes as northern communities continue to face land degradation, desertification, water shortages and declining agricultural productivity. ACReSAL is expected to use the additional funding to scale up interventions before the current project cycle ends in 2028.
Leave a comment