The Enugu state Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has commended the N3.4 billion grants from the World Bank’s Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) project in the state.
The governor, represented by his Deputy, Mrs Cecilia Ezeilo, made this known in Enugu during the flag off of the implementation of “Women and Youths Empowerment Program (WYEP)”, disclosing that Enugu State is the only one from the south east geopolitical zone to benefit from the APPEALS program.
APPEALS project is solely funded by the World Bank to improve livelihood of women and youths along the priority agricultural value chains of poultry, rice, cashew, fish farming and cassava, across six states of Cross River, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi, Enugu and Lagos.
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The governor pointed out that the project is among the World Bank programs to enhance the productivity of small- and medium-scale farmers, and that it is directly contributing to the state government’s four-point agenda on food security, rural development, job creation and good governance.
The Enugu State Acting Project Coordinator of APPEALS, Mrs Ihuoma Eze, noted that the program began in August 2019 with the call for Expression of Interest as advertised on the National Dailies for eligible residents of Enugu State, with a total submission of 29,707.
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Eze explained that the number was trimmed down to the Project targeted number of 1,700 Women, Youth and Persons with Disability resident across the 17 Local Government Areas of the State, with 55.8% women and girls while 5% are Persons with Disability.
She added that the beneficiaries were trained on their chosen value chains of Poultry, Rice, Cashew and Cassava, and that an individual enterprise assessed an approximate of amount of N2 million each while group enterprises comprising of 2- 5 individuals per group assessed between N4 to 10 million.
