The Nigerian Government had approved the variation for the sum required for the Tada Shonga Irrigation Project in Kwara State to N10.18bn.
The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said the approval was granted at the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.
Adamu said the abandoned project, which started in 2010, had the completion period of 36 months.
He said the variation had increased the size of the project from 1,500 hectares to 2,200 hectares of irrigation.
He said, “So, for that purpose, we sought for the augmentation and variation in the sum of N6.9bn, raising the project from the original sum of N3.263bn to N10.18bn.
“Council was gracious enough to approve this project because of the huge potentials that it has for the food security policy and our desire to make agriculture a focal instrument of our economy.
“This project is located in the Niger River Basin. Between the Rivers Niger and Benue basins, we have potentials for about 1.8 million hectares for irrigation and we’ve been trying to encourage the private sector to also join us in developing these huge areas with great potentials for agriculture and this is one step forward towards developing the irrigation potentials of that basin.”
