The African Development Bank has onboarded 21 states for the second phase of its Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones Programme.
The Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, revealed this to State House Correspondents after the 146th meeting of the National Economic Council at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
Uzodimma said that with projects of the programme’s pilot phase—in Kano, Kaduna, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun, Imo, Cross River States, and the Federal Capital Territory—at various stages of completion, “phase two is about to start.”
“Impressed by the programme, two weeks ago, there was a stakeholders meeting that onboarded an additional 21 states, so the Council resolved and urged all the states to key into this programme because it is going to be a game changer, and it will go a long way in tackling the food security pursuit of the Federal Government,” he added.
On February 5, 2024, Senior Special Adviser on Industrialisation to the AfDB President, Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, told Vice President Kashim Shettima that the pilot states would receive the first tranche of disbursements of $540m from the Bank to develop SPAZs.
