Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, has flagged off the 966km rural roads and project under the Federal Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP), with the 12km Rinze-Mintibi Madaki road as pilot project.
Engineer Sule performed the flagging off ceremony in Rinze, headquarters of Akwanga West Development Area, on Thursday.
The RAAMP is aimed at providing access roads to rural farmers and ensuring the provision of market infrastructural facilities, as well as enhancing financial and technical intervention to farmers, which will also boost agricultural production for value chain addition.
The rural project, which is being jointly funded by the World Bank and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, will cut across all the 13 local government areas of the state and is expected to be completed in two years.
The Rinze-Mintibi Madaki road which was flagged off by the Governor is however expected to be completed in 12 months.
Engineer Sule disclosed that, as part of the first phase of the project, three markets were equally selected from each of the senatorial districts of the state, as focal points for agro-logistic intervention.
The Governor said the project was in line with the thrust of his administration towards the construction of urban and rural roads in the state aimed at opening vista of opportunities for socio-economic activities to thrive.
“This is intended to enhance inter-connectivity between the rural and urban centres, as well as facilitating the transportation of agricultural products and other commodities from the remote areas to markets in the urban centres,” he stated.
While noting that farmers in Nasarawa State continue to face challenges which include lack of access roads, storage and processing facilities, his administration quickly keyed into the RAAMP project in order to diversify the agricultural sector for socioeconomic development.
According to the Governor, though the RAAMP has been in existence for long, this is the first time Nasarawa State is benefiting from the project.
Engineer Sule charged the contractor handling the project to deliver quality work.
