The Federal Government, in partnership with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and French Development Agency (AFD), has advanced plans to roll out the Value Chain Programme in Northern Nigeria (VCN), an eight-year agricultural intervention targeting up to 3.6 million farmers and rural entrepreneurs.
The renewed push was confirmed at a high-level stakeholder engagement held in Abuja, where government officials and development partners aligned on accelerating the programme’s implementation timeline.
Scheduled to run from 2026 to 2034, the VCN is designed to strengthen inclusive, climate-resilient and nutrition-sensitive agricultural value chains across nine states—Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara. The programme is co-funded by IFAD and AFD and will be implemented by the Federal Government in collaboration with participating state governments.
Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Aliyu Abdullahi, described the initiative as a strategic response to persistent challenges in northern Nigeria, including poverty, unemployment and food insecurity. He emphasised the importance of coordinated execution across all levels of government and development partners to ensure timely disbursement and measurable outcomes.
“With the coming of VCN, we are determined to move beyond primary production to building resilient value chains where farmers are linked to markets, value is added locally, and post-harvest losses are minimised,” Abdullahi said.
He added that the programme would prioritise infrastructure development, institutional strengthening and accountability frameworks needed to unlock agricultural productivity in the region. The minister also urged state governments to take ownership of implementation, noting that local commitment would be critical to achieving impact at the community level.
IFAD Country Director, Dr Dede Ekoue, disclosed that the $158 million programme is expected to directly support between 2.6 million and 3.6 million smallholder farmers and rural entrepreneurs. According to her, the VCN will span the full agricultural value chain, covering production, processing, services, distribution and waste-to-wealth initiatives.
“The programme integrates climate-smart agriculture, adaptation strategies, gender inclusion, youth entrepreneurship and digital innovation,” Ekoue said, adding that the stakeholder engagement was convened to fast-track approvals and resolve implementation bottlenecks.
She stressed that effective delivery would depend on seamless coordination across institutions. “For VCN to function effectively; from inputs reaching farms to produce accessing markets, each component of the institutional value chain must operate in synergy,” she noted.
The engagement brought together representatives from the Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Food Security and Finance, alongside development partners and commissioners for agriculture and finance from the participating states, signalling a coordinated approach to scaling agricultural transformation in northern Nigeria.
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