Buhari tasks World Bank, AfDB, others to activate $19bn fund for PAGGW’s activities

President Muhammadu Buhari has urged the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB) and other partners to support the One Planet Summit initiative and activate the US$19 billion pledge.

He said the pledge, meant for the activities of the Pan African Great Green Wall Agency (PAGGW), would be utilized for land restoration, tree planting, development of climate resilience infrastructure and investments in small and medium-sized farms.

The president’s spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, in a statement on Monday in Abuja, said the president made the charge at a side event he convened at the ongoing UN Conference Of Parties, COP15 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

The meeting, which involved the 11 Sahel African states, discussed ways and means of accessing and utilizing US$19 billion pledged by donors for the activities of the Pan African Great Green Wall Agency (PAGGW).

He asked the secretariat of the Agency, funders and the soon-to-be appointed consultant to carry out the measure as a way of restoring the socio-economy of the more than 30 million people of the Lake Chad basin area.

He expressed the hope that the US$19 billion pledged at the One Planet Summit in Paris in 2021 would “turn the dollars into hectares.”