Chairing the occasion, the Regional Delegate for Agriculture and Rural Development for Centre, Mbolo Ngono Gabriel, announced that since the beginning of the year, the project has financed 68 agricultural and livestock projects with 68 farmer organizations in the two regions to the tune of FCFA 922 million. He urged beneficiaries to remember that they have moved from subsistence to large-scale commercial agriculture, and must always reason and act as true business managers. He said the performance of beneficiaries would determine if other groups in their communities develop interest in the project or not.
The PACA Project Coordinator for the Centre and South Regions, Nkoum Ntyam Georges Armand, explained that prior to the signing of the funding agreements, beneficiaries had been trained on project financial and administrative procedures, “given the huge sums of money to be managed by them.” He said the project aims at improving agricultural competiveness through the promotion of large-scale production of rice, oil palm, bananas, plantain, pigs, chicken, etc by increasing production and productivity.
Though the assistance to farmer organisations is non-refundable, the Coordinator warned that embezzlers will be prosecuted as the money is public money put at their use. Last month, the project signed funding agreements with farmer organisations from the two regions for 17 agricultural and livestock projects worth FCFA 400 million. The project is jointly funded by the World Bank and government.
