Livelihood Improvement and Family Enterprises, Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) progamme of the FGN/NDDC/IFAD has officially been launched by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development at Presidential Hotel, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, which marked the official implementation of the project.
LIFE-ND is a project conceived by the Federal Government of Nigeria to address the issues of poverty, unemployment and underemployment amongst women and youths in the rural areas of the nine States in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.
The project development objective is to enhance income, food security and job creation for rural youth and women through agri-enterprise development on a sustainable basis in Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The project directly supports Nigeria’s agricultural policy and strategic framework for youth employment & job creation.
Recall that since 2015 when the program was iniated, the pre-implementation activities have been going on, prominent among which is the recruitment of officers from the regional level to the State level while the exercise followed a rigorous and highly competitive process by the interview panel that was made up of representatives of different Federal Government Agencies.
On conclusion of the recruitment of State officers, and people emerging purely on merit, Dr. Uchenna Rowland Onyeizu emerged as the Abia State Project Coordinator.
At the official launching of the LIFE-ND project in Port Harcourt, the State Project Coordinator, Dr. Uchenna Rowland Onyeizu led the state Project Management Team comprising the State Project Coordinator, Agribusiness Promotion Officer, Rural Infrastructure Officer, Rural institution, Gender & Youth Officer, Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, Knowledge Management & Communication Officer, Finance Officer, Project Accountant, Procurement Officer, Administration & Logistics Officer and Project Internal Auditor.
The Programme comprises of two components: 1 Enhancement of economic opportunities for the rural youth and women 2. Project management and coordination. The programme is expected to last for 12 years. The first 6 years will be cofinanced by IFAD and NDDC while IFAD will finance the next six years. The project will be implemented in 10 LGAs and 10 communities in each State of Niger Delta region. It is targeting about 40000 youth and women. With the ratio of 50 /50.
The Honourable Commissioner for Agriculture, Prof. Ikechi Mgbeoji represented Abia state at the launch.
