MONROVIA – The Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of the World Bank at the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Identification Registry (NIR) to register 30,000 farmers who are beneficiaries of the Smallholder Agriculture Transformation and Agribusiness Revitalization Project (The STAR Project) and the Rural Economic Transformation Project (RETRAP). NIR will register the first 10,000 in early October and continue the process later this year.
The registration of project beneficiaries using the national biometric identification system is to establish a national registry for easy identification to provide training, farming inputs, and others, as well as follow-up.
Remarking on the signing ceremony that took place on Friday, September 23, 2022, at the MOA Program Management Unit in Gardnersville, the National Project Coordinator of the World Bank PIU Galah Toto said the activity will improve project planning and implementation, as well as enhance key opportunities for the farmers.
“When we have unique identification for these farmers that we support, we will be able to locate them and provide training, inputs, and other services that we do as part of the implementation of these projects. This is an impactful activity for us because we can now reduce the practice of one group of farmers getting, while others are left behind”, he said.
He disclosed that a telecommunication provider with a mobile financing platform that the projects will use to remit funds to its beneficiaries has set this as a key requirement to identify the farmers they will work with. As such, the signing of the MOU complemented ongoing efforts to ensure that the support being provided gets to the right beneficiaries.
For his part, the Executive Director of the NIR J. Tiah Nagbe said the move was in the right direction as it supports quality service delivery to the right people. “Identification systems are like virtual fences that allow you to target and disaggregate, from a large group of people, that section of the group you want to serve. And The NIR enables you to do this very efficiently to serve your people better, at a lower cost and you can avoid providing the same service to the same persons who may be defrauding the system. We are happy that you are seeing the value in migrating from the old to new that will help you in your delivery”, he said.
The event was attended by Operations Managers Stephen Marvie of the STAR Project and Tarnue Jeke of RETRAP. Sylvester Taylor, Financial Management Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture, Eddie Eesiah of the NIR, and Roosevelt Reeves of RETRAP also attended the ceremony.
With funding from the World Bank and the International Funds for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the STAR project is focused on providing innovative agricultural financing institutional capacity building, and strengthening the enabling environment for farmers, agribusinesses, state, and non-state actors, as well as enhancing productivity and competitiveness. RETRAP seeks to develop or enhance competitiveness and market access through productive alliances as well as strengthening agri-marketing and engaging in road infrastructure investments.
Both STAR-P and RETRAP are being implemented in the 15 counties with a combined target of 98,000 beneficiaries in the cassava, oil palm, rice, rubber, piggery, poultry and vegetable value chains.