AfDB approves $50M loan for Yobe State to enhance climate change resilience

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) approved a $50 million loan for the Yobe State Environmental and Climate Change Action Project (ECCAP) to enhance climate change resilience, boost food security, and improve livelihoods for over 3.5 million people in northeast Nigeria.

 

The project cost is estimated at $101.34 million with the African Development Bank providing a $50 million loan while the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) is expected to provide $30 million in co-financing. Yobe State Government will contribute $4.52 million in counterpart funding, and project beneficiaries are contributing $16.82m

In decades past, protracted inter-communal conflicts, especially between herder and farming communities, and armed insurgencies have aggravated the already fragile environmental situation in Yobe, plunging it into rapid economic decline. With 72% of its population living below the poverty line, Yobe is ranked as the state in Nigeria that is most vulnerable to climate change.

ECCAP will support the federal and state governments in their efforts to respond to the challenges of droughts and desertification, empower women by supplying small ruminants and providing cooking stoves to develop micro, small and medium-size enterprises, among other interventions. The project will also support the preparation of Yobe State’s Gender Policy.