Sokoto State Govt Seeks Bill Gates’ Partnership On Agriculture

The Sokoto state government has sought for a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the development of agriculture and related sectors in the state.

Speaking during a live video conference with Mr. Gates, to assess the progress of Routine Immunisation in the state, Governor Aminu Tambuwal said: “We appreciate your efforts in improving healthcare delivery in Sokoto state in particular in Nigeria as a whole. I want to inform that the potential agricultural sector holds in Sokoto is enormous. We seek partnership with you to modernise the sector and improve the earnings of our farmers.”
The immunisation programme is funded by the Gates, Dangote Foundation and the United Stated Agency for International Development (USAID).
Tambuwal assured the development partners that Sokoto government will meet its funding obligation, while a new data centre will be opened in the state ministry of health to ease collection and processing of data for proper planning.
The governor said, with more than 85 percent of Sokoto’s population engaged in one form of agricultural activity or another, the partnership will create value for all parties and ensure rapid development of local farmers in the state.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has forever been a champion of Agricultural development, it has since committed more than US$2 billion to agricultural development efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to date.
It wiould be recalled that in June this year, the Foundation launched a campaign to help extremely poor families in sub-Saharan Africa by giving them 100,000 chickens.
According to Bill Gates, raising and selling the birds can be efficient to tackle extreme poverty.

source: info.Nigeria