48-SATURDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 29, 2011 AS a state project. ho~ F A D A M A does It operate and the gains fanners stand to benefitY The project operates using what is called community driven development approach. How do I mean? It is a system whereby farmers or all stakeholders within their agricultural sector benefit from FADAMA through their own priorities and needs. What we do is that we have what we call, a participatory rural apprisal method, a method where farmers other stakeholders determine their own needs without we saying this is what you need. That is how we operate. We operate in all the 20 old local government of Lagos State. And in each of these local governments, we have FADAMA desk office with two desk officer who work in that local government aSBtatt. Apart from that, we have people called the facilitators, who assist farmers in developing what we call local development plan. The local development plan is like a project of its FADAMA Community Association. In working, we have what we call FADAMA Community Association and FADAMA Users Group. The Users Group are economic interest groups. Groups that have similar goals and objectives. What this does is that if for instance, I'ma' fish farmer and there are othe.r fiBh farmers, we come together and work as a group. The reason is that FADAMA i project workE with groups and not individuals. Theyalso have an', umbrella association called FADAM Community Association. This group has at least ten to twelve FADAMA users group, and proj~cts for
computerisation are projects that affect the generality of the路 people. For instance, market projects, rural roads, packaging, processing, cool stores or even boreholes etc. So,basically we call them small scale infrastructure. FADAMA users group which are economic users group is called productive asset. For example, they can ask for fish tank to rear fishes, ask for water pump to pump water fot their irrigation. All these we do working through F A D 路A M A computerisationand users group. And these groups or association develop their local development plan through the assistance of the facilitators. So when the local development plans are produced, they are sent to the local government desk officers who would process and review it and now send to us in oui- office where we now develop such project that are implemented. Who sponsors the project - World Bank or. Lagos State government? It is a partnership sponsored project. Partnership with all the levels of government, from the FG, State and Local government as well as' the World Bailk. What are conditions for giving grant to farmersY Yes. You must be a路 practicing farmer. We don't accept people who want to start farming and come to FADAMA You must be a member of the registered groups. You must be registered at the Cooperative Department of the Lagos State Ministry of Ag):iCuIturai and Cooperative for you to be a member. You must be honest. committed to work. Since the fonnation of
You muslbe a practicing farmer, we don't want people who want to start farmipg and come to FADAMA
African Logistics holds summit on Maritime AFRICAN Logistics will hold a two day summit on Maritime. The summit which will take place at Abuja from Marc)J. 10 - 12, will feature a distinguished maritime arbitrator and law expert, Mr Jose M. Alcantara as guest speaker.
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Mr Alcantara, an attorney in maritime law and maritime law'adviser to the Spanish Government and a member of a number of industry organisations, will speak on maritime laws, seeurity, regulation and insurance issues that are impacting on the global business environment, spokesperson to the summit, Mr Ukata Christian said. He said. the presentation which Mr. Alcantaia will deliver will beofimmense benefittothosethatwill attend the summit The Summit offers professional.networking and business links with some of the most sucr:essfu! independent general freight forwarding organisations in the world and seeks to aellveraone-stopshopthatfocusesonwin-winpartnerships throughout the supply chain inAfrica. TheAfricanLogisticsSununitisendorsedbytheAssociation ofNigerianUcensedCuslomsAgenlsandanumberofAfrican shipping associations, and supported by Pan African freight forwarding group, African Cargo and Logistics Alliance.
How to attract youths into agriculture is a major challenge -ONASANYA r. OlayinwaIe Onasanya, is the State Project Coordinator of The Lagos State FADAMA Coordination D Office. The project which aims at reducing poverty especially among farmers in the state is a World Bank associated. with FG. State and Local Government playing reasonable roles. In one of the local government's offices of FADAMA's Desk office at Oshodi during routine meeting with farmers, he spoke to Saturday Vanguard Business, on the achievement of FADAMA in Lagos State. 1i?UiWAnd have involved
FADAMA. what are the achievement so farY I want to say here that we have FADAMA 1, 2 and 3. FADAMAonewas basically and structurally different from 2 and 3 because FADAMA 1 was not really路 a separate project, it was working' with Synergy organisation. But FADAMA 2 which started in 2004 and ended in 2009, and 3 started and will continue till 2013. It has been a successful project. Let me talk about FADAMA2, what we had was a tremendous increase in the income of our farmers. From the basement done. by the Institute of Food Policy and' Research, Washington, we had 60 per cent increase in the income of our farmers. Also there was a significance increase in their productive assets. A lot of farmers that had no asset or borrowed assets to do their work, had their own asset. Therefore, some of them moved to the next level in life. Some of them now havecommercialisedtheir farms. Many can now afford cars and can afford good education for their children. is a project that has grassroot appeal and it has helped a lot of people in Lagos state. Several applications we've received from people of FADAMA project can attest to that and is high. It has been a successful project, that is why we have FADAMA3. It has helped to reduce poverty and increase standard .of living of our
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Airtel .By Moses Nosike & Emmanuel Elebeke
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people in agriculture. . introducedanewmeasure These funds provided called FADAMA Users by FADAMA to assist Equity Trust Fund. We fanners. is It repayableY did that because if you go It's not free, but it uses to market and you buy grant mechanism. Earlier, something of NI00, and I ~aIked about productive somebody is now giving asset and small scale you a grant of N70, we infrastructure. These are expect that you should be the two major corner . able to save part of that stone of the proje~t and grant and that's what we we have others like do in FADAMA's Users . advisory service, capacity Equity Trust fund. etc. But on those two So, that allows our major mentioned first are beneficiaries save part of the two major ways we the grant given to them. can measure success of The reason for this is that the project. One, under it will enable them to product asset, farmers replacement asset and contribute thirty percent also build capital for the of the total cost of the asset future. while we give grant of Under small scale seventy per cent. The infrastructure, like grant is free, but despite building markets and so that fact, we have on, that we've done in the
announces
lJackage in Lagos on Monday, the. Chief Executive Officer, Airtel AlRTELNigeria has ones Nigeria, Rajan Swaroop again announced another said" as part of 2Good, we innovative package aimed are taking another bold at reducing cost and time step in our journey of spe.nt in recharging GSM redefining freedom in the' phones. telecom m u.nica tions This is coming just two experience in Nigeria. We months after launching the also want to identify with Airtel brand in the country, the local and unique and after launching its experience of Wazo.bia as 2Good offer, where the original Nigerian network operator allows expression that captures its customers to make calls the heart and spirit of the at 20k per second, flat people. We therefore want across all networks and tp to identify with such local the USA. This is after the and relevant and unique first minutes of the day at expression of the Nigenan 60k per second was spirit," said Swaroop. removed. The product launch saw' Unveiling the new the unveiling of N50
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in rebuilding. Under this type of project, we contribute ninety percent while beneficiaries contribute ten per cent. We also said that some of these infrastructures can also earn fund because you have to maintain them, rebuild some part it etc. Can you forecast the future of FADAMAT The future is bright, even though the World Bank can't continue to fund the project forever. I believe with success achieved and grassroot appeal, the state government is ina position to continue to fund the project, because this is a project that the dividend goes direct to the . beneficiaries. It's the people orientated project where people benefit directly unlike other projects. Even! if I'm not there, there'rl\ other officers that can map.age it as well. What: are the major challenges facing FADAMAl If you look at agriculture, there are challenges of finance and infrastructure. Another one is: how to attract youths .'into agriculture. One th.ll!tg.I have noticed is that the grant mechanism has worked well for FADAMA, and it's good that if we continue with grant mechanism, it's good we introduce credit mechanism into the FADAMA projects so that people can approach banks and good loans from bankB and so.
Reacharge
electronic recharge card (WazobiaRecharge), a new flexible airtime recharge service of Airtel with any denomination ftOm as low as N50 through its electronic platform and , also introducing our N50 recharge paper voucher. According to the Airtel CEO, the Wazobia recharge will further empower existing "nd potential Airtel Customers across the country; offering them mo.re continence, flexibility, freedom, and ease in recharging their phones with airtime. Wazobia Recharge is a denominationless electronic recharge service
which offers customers a. unique' opportunity to recharge their phones and those of their friends and family members without having [0 scratch cards. With ,the'launch of the product. Airtel all retailers will be empowered to make the various recharge denominations available from as N50. Customers can also recharge with any value that is convenient and affordable for them. "Our retail partners will also be stocking and selling the N50 recharge paper voucher and are easily obtainable from their neighborhood airtime retailers," said Swaroop.