LIFE-ND Lauds Oborevwori for Approving Three-year Counterpart Fund Arrears

Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, has been commended for approving payment of three years’ outstanding counterpart fund to the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises for the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) in the state.

The Delta State Coordinator, Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises for Niger Delta (LIFE-ND), Mr Collins Ashoro, who gave the commendation last Tuesday in Asaba, noted that the LIFE-ND project is a tripartite programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Ashoro, in his remarks during a LIFE-ND Media Roundtable in Asaba last Tuesday to review the activities of the first phase of the developmental programme from inception in 2019 to 2025 in the 10 selected local government areas of Delta, said that payment of counterpart fund remained critical to the level of success in the various projects of the intervention initiative.

The state project coordinator emphasized that participating state governments are required to pay a counterpart fund so as to attract needed funding for executing the projects and activities of LIFE-ND.

He expressed confidence that the payment of Delta’s counterpart fund would go a long way in accelerating the tempo of activities in the designated local government areas under the second phase of the programme in 2026.

The project’s life cycle is 12 years, disaggregated into two phases of six years each, he explained, noting that the first phase had been successfully concluded in the state with youths and women aged 18-35 years as the main beneficiaries.

Ashoro said, “The first phase has been completed in Delta State. It began in 2019 and ended in March 2025, while the second phase began with additional financing in  October 2025 to run through 2031.

“The project is in response to the limited and readily available agricultural entrepreneurial skills options that focus on youths, women, and persons with disabilities in the Niger Delta region.

“The project has received Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s approval to pay counterpart fund for the outstanding three years, because it was last paid in 2020.

“Payment of counterpart fund is vital if the project must deliver on its objectives of ensuring food security, wealth creation, youth, and women engagement and financial freedom among rural dwellers through agribusinesses in the state.”

The LIFE-ND project covers nine states in the Niger Delta, adding that six states – Delta, Edo, Cross River, Abia, Ondo, and Bayelsa – are supported by IFAD, while Akwa Ibom, Imo, and Rivers are supported by the NDDC.

“LIFE-ND Project has a financing plan of 90 million US dollars for the first phase; IFAD to provide 60 million US dollars to finance its funding in six states, while NDDC is to contribute 30 million US dollars to finance its three states.

“However, in May 2024, the federal government requested 32 million US dollars from the Borrowed Resources Access Mechanism(BRAM) to fill the financing gap.

“This gave rise to the additional financing aimed to extend LIFE-ND’s achievements in economic development and wealth creation by sustainably supporting agribusiness enterprises,” Ashoro said.

He said that the priority commodity and their value chains for Delta State are fisheries, oil palm processing, cassava, and poultry production, adding that the project employed the incubator model to achieve results.

Ashoro said the project has also built physical structures, completed projects like earthen ponds, luck up and open market stalls, cassava processing plants, drainages, mini poultry, planting of economic trees to curb environmental degradation,n as well as facilitated financing and insurance services for beneficiaries.

“However, our major challenge is funding, sowe appeal to the state government to pay the outstanding counterpart fund. Also, low level of literacy in the rural communities, banks’ bureaucracy, and poor access to loans are some of the impediments,” he added.