World Bank lists Ogun among RAAMP beneficiaries

From: Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The World Bank has announced the admission of Ogun State into the development partners-sponsored Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP), which is to run for the next five years.
The RAAMP is a window of opportunity opened by the World Bank, the Africa Development Bank, the French Development Agency and the Federal Government, to ensure better lives for farmers through access and value addition to farm produce.
Speaking at the pre-appraisal mission trip to the state, on Wednesday, in Abeokuta, the Task Team Leader of the World Bank, Engr. Olatunji Ahmed, said the preparation of the state put her in good stead for eventual take-off.
“The World Bank aligns with the vision of this government, it is not difficult for us to do business with a government that is purpose and passion-driven as this. The pace and intensity of infrastructure being done presupposes that the State Project Unit (SPIU) it will get it right in RAAMP,” Ahmed stated.
He rued the loss of farm produce to bad road on one hand and the single-product economy of the country, noting “twenty five percent of farm produce rot away on the farm because of inaccessibility “.
Earlier in his remark, Permanent Secretary, Ogun State Ministry of Rural Development, Rev. Gbele Olugbebi, said state government had committed “great deal of logistics including money to ensure the successful take–off of the RAAMP.
Olugbebi, who doubles as the Chairman of the State Project Monitoring Committee (SPMC), added the identified rural roads and markets would further complement ongoing efforts of government in rehabilitating and constructing rural roads.
On his own part, the Project Coordinator, Engineer Samuel Onabanjo, commended the state government for her timely activation of the counterpart funding mechanism, just as he described the World Bank initiative as “noble and novel in the developmental loop”.