Project Summary

Project General Description

The proposed operation concerns an additional funding from the African Development Fund (ADF - 15) amounting to UA 2.17 million in ADF Loan and UA 0.06 million in ADF Grant to the Republic of Liberia to enhance implementation success for the overall Liberia Special Agro Industrial Processing Zone Project (Liberia SAPZ). The rationale for the supplementary financing follows from the reallocation of unutilized loan and grant resources from the ADF 15 allocation for the Republic of Liberia. The additional financial resources will be used to provide additional capacity building (Component 2) along the value chains in key SAPZ commodities for farmer groups, cover the cost of equipment for industrial skills training, and salaries of 3 full-time consultants to complement existing project staff. These additional activities will be perfectly feasible in the current planning of Liberia SAPZ implementation, which will help increase the outcomes of this project, especially by providing capacity and improving access to agricultural inputs and the aggregation of agricultural output for agro-industrial processing by rural households and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Project Objectives

This additional financing will be used to fund the additional capacity building activities listed below under Component 2 of the project: (i) Capacity Building for Commodity Out growers, Farmer Groups, and Cooperatives; (ii) Business Development Support (BDS) and Training for MSME’s and Young Entrepreneurs; and (iii) Support Development of Quality and Relevant Skills for Agro-Industrialization in two Colleges. The ADF funding will also finance training equipment in the Grand Bassa County College and pay for full time consultants (namely Gender Expert, Environment and Social Safeguards Officer, and M&E Expert that were to be initially engaged on an ad hoc basis) to ensure achievement of the project’s expected outcomes.

Beneficiaries

The project will benefit, directly, farming households and communities, the youth, women, agribusiness MSMEs and staff of related public institutions. The project will also benefit, indirectly, rural populations in the coverage areas. Through linkages to agro-processing firms in the Liberia SAPZs, about 130,000 farming households in farmer groups, within the Agri Hub and ATC catchment area in the Counties will benefit from improved access to organized markets, and motivation to increased productivity, reduced post-harvest losses, as well as more predictable and increased incomes arising from better price discovery. The key commodities of focus are rice, cassava, oil palm, coffee, cocoa, rubber, fruits and vegetables, and aquaculture.

Participating Organization

Information

Export

Download

Contact Details

Geographic Location