VALUE CHAIN PROGRAMME IN NORTHERN NIGERIA (VCN)

The Value Chain Programme in Northern Nigeria (VCN) aims to contribute sustainably to poverty reduction, enhanced nutrition and resilience of rural populations in nine northern states of Nigeria. VCN is a scaling up and sustainability measure for the previous investments under the Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme (CASP), which was implemented in seven out of the nine states of VCN. The additional state (Kano) is included to strengthen the linkage of the VCN value chains with a robust market in Kano, a major regional market for agricultural produce. Kano is also the project area of another IFAD investment, the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) project and market synergies will be sought for between the two projects. The inclusion Bauchi State will help leverage the results and lessons learned of AFD-financed RAAMP.

 VCN targets 456,000 rural households in the nine states and will be implemented over an eight-year period at a total cost of USD 158.1 million. IFAD is providing a Performance Based Allocation System (PBAS) loan of USD 56.7 million and Borrowed Resource Access Mechanism (BRAM) resources of USD 30 million. The Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) is co-financing VCN with USD 50.8 million. Co-financing by Government is USD 12 million, and by the beneficiaries USD 8.6 million. The Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) provide oversight at national level to VCN. The FMAFS is the Lead Programme Implementing Agency.

The goal of the VCN is to contribute sustainably to poverty reduction, enhanced nutrition and better resilience of rural populations in the northern states of Nigeria. The goal is to reach 250,800 HHs (55% of the target of 456,000 HHs) reporting improved livelihoods and reduction in poverty. Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) will also be mainstreamed in the implementation of all the components. The programme development objective (PDO) is to improve food and nutrition security and income of HHs in northern Nigeria through inclusive and sustainable VC development as an enabler for rural transformation through gender transformative, youth responsive, nutrition sensitive and climate change resilient approaches mainstreamed in all key activities.

The VCN is yet to come onboard.

You can access the full Programme Design Report of VCN from the IFAD Website from here