Edo pledges support for RUFIN programme

Mr Joe Okojie, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, made the promise in Benin on Tuesday when RUFIN’s Leader of 11th Supervision Mission, Mr Swandip Sahin, ‎visited the state.

The commissioner said the government was mapping out strategies to take ownership of the programme when the project was over.

According to him, Edo is an agrarian society where more than 67 per cent of the residents had something to do with agricultural activities.

According to him, the state government is putting in place measures that would boost agricultural production, especially in the rural areas.

He said, “RUFIN is a programme through which help and relief can be given to people at the grassroots.

“That is why when I took over office, I took interest in the project and I made it‎ my project.

“I am doing my best so that, we as a government will fulfill our own end of the project.

“I promise you that we will do the needful and will do more to take ownership of the programme when RUFIN is gone.

“My hope is that, going forward, we will have better synergy so that we are able to deliver on our promises.”

Earlier, RUFIN’s Deputy National Project Coordinator, Mrs Unekwu Ufaruna, said the programme was targeted at building informal rural financial institutions, and linking them to formal micro finance institutions to access loans without collateral.

She said RUFIN had formed 700 village savings and credit groups also known as ‘Esusu’ mainly made up of women.

Ufaruna said the programme was working with seven Micro Finance Institutions in the state, through which N1.2‎bn had been disbursed as loans to rural farmers, since its inception.

She said at the beginning of RUFIN Edo Government was regular at paying counterpart financing.