Bauchi State Project Management Unit (SPMU) of the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi Arid Landscape (ACReSAL) has sensitised the Gajin-Duguri community of Alkaleri local government area on Community Revolving Funds (CRF) meant to improving economy.
The ACReSAL team also inspected the water flooding sites at Duguri and interacted with the community members at the District Head Palace.
The team informed the people, the purpose of the visit which was to inspect the water flooding sites with the view to have the clearer picture of the situation and to come up with engineering design towards addressing the problem.
The State Project Coordinator Dr Ibrahim Kabir gave an overview of ACReSAL to the community, its areas of operation which targets to resolve lingering problems around Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources Sectors.
Represented by the Forestry Officer of the Project, Nasiru Abdu Umar, he added that Governor Bala Mohammed has paid the counterpart fund and in full support to address issues related to the three sectors which Duguri flooding problem is part of and solicited for their support throughout the processes up to the implementation period.
Also speaking, the SSA to Governor Bala Mohammed on ACReSAL, Alhaji Adamu Abubakar Barde who led the SPMU officers called on the community members to cooperate with the project office towards fulfilling the present administration’s campaign promises, urging them to take the message to the grassroots for a wider audience.
The entourage also sensitised Gajin Duguri community on the Community Revolving Fund (CRF) which is targeted to assist farmers to get a soft loan that will revolve around.
It is to improve agricultural activities, job opportunities in the area and also informed them on the modalities for assessing the loan and the repayment methods among others.
Part of the requirements according to the Agric Officer, Mahmood Bala Umar, is that the loan can be assessed only by farmers, through a registered association.
He added that ten communities in the state were selected for the pilot project and called on them to organise themselves to benefit from the initiative.
The SSA also called on the community members to leverage on the selection of their community by the governor to judiciously utilise the funds for the overall objectives of the initiative and assured more good things to come for the community.
Some of the community members who spoke during the interactions at both Duguri and Gajin Duguri commended the foresight of the governor and the ACReSAL project for finding their communities worthy of the projects and pledged their total support to the project.
Dahiru Usman Danmalikin Duguri and Sha’ayau Musa Saleh, the Principal, GSS Duguri requested for the government in collaboration with ACReSAL to establish a cassava processing company in the area.
He said that this will go along way in creating value chain, employment opportunities to the youths and revenue generation to the government as contained in a statement by the Communications Unit, Bauchi ACReSAL.