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Fed Govt, IFAD empower officials with ICT tools

The Federal Government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have trained officials in the use of Information Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) in monitoring and evaluation of projects.

Speaking at the opening ceremony in Abuja yesterday, the Country Director of IFAD, Mrs Dede Ekoue said the digital training in monitoring and evaluation is aimed at using ICT4D to scale up results for farmers.

According to her, when ICT4D is used for a solution, IFAD will be able to not only make sure that staff use this solution to work on the project but also to have farmers use these solutions to give feedback on the project and feedback on how IFAD can improve.

 “The essence of this training is to use the power of digital solutions to improve the monitoring and evaluation of our project.

 “It is important because the federal government of Nigeria and IFAD are investing heavily in projects and these projects must yield the best result; to ensure that it yield the best result, we need to use the digital tool to track the results, to track whether these results are in line with the objectives, to ensure that these results are efficient, to learn also from these results, to continue improving the project,'' she said.

 An ICT4D Consultant, Dana Sprole said through this training, they are hoping to impact and share more knowledge about ICT and highlight the collaboration that is necessary for bringing in farmers in order for the program to be successful.

 “Through the different sessions that we are covering, the hope is that they will be able to impact the knowledge that they learn here and incorporate farmers and farmers’ perspective into the work that they are doing,” she noted.

 The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Ernest Umakhihe, said agriculture has to be diversified through the use of technology, as without technology, the country cannot achieve much.

Umakhihe, who was represented by the Director Planning and Policy Coordination in the Ministry, Mr Ibrahim Tanimu said the ICT4D training is an important part of President Bola Tinubu's agenda of transforming the agricultural sector.