| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
CONTENTS:
CAMEROON: US $13.5 million micro finance support GUINEA: US $20 million for rural development project NIGERIA: US $36 million load for smallholder SENEGAL: US $46.5 million for decentralisation of rural development BURKINA FASO: Schools and colleges closed indefinitely
CAMEROON: US $13.5 million micro finance support
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide loans to four West African countries for development projects totalling US $116 million, IFAD said Thursday from its Rome headquarters.
Cameroon's `National Micro finance Programme Support' project will receive some US $13.5 million to help create a sound framework for rural development strategies.
GUINEA: US $20 million for rural development project
IFAD will provide US $20 million to complement the activities of Guinea's `Programme for Participatory Rural Development in Haute Guinee'. The aim is to give area residents the chance to take part in programme management and resource allocation of projects.
Poverty in Guinea is concentrated in the rural areas, IFAD says, where it affects 53 percent of the population. The poorest region is the plains region area of Haute-Guinee.
NIGERIA: US $36 million loan for smallholders
A US $36-million IFAD loan for Nigeria's `Roots and Tubers Expansion Programme' targets small holders mainly in the southern and middle-belt states of the country.
The project aims to expose the majority of the target group to improved varieties of roots and tubers, impart cultural practices as well as reach out to the poorest segment of the population: farmers faced with constraints related to land, labour, soil infertility and erosion.
SENEGAL: US $46.5 million for decentralisation of rural development
The US $46.5-million "National Rural Infrastructure Project" is aiming to serve two million people and help decentralise rural development processes, IFAD said. It also aims to provide target rural communities with basic social and economic infrastructures.
BURKINA FASO: Schools and colleges closed indefinitely
High schools and colleges in Ouagadougou, the capital, have been closed indefinitely for "public order reasons," Reuters reported state media as saying on Thursday.
Public and private schools will be closed from Friday "until further notice," radio and television said. Students have been protesting for the last three weeks over the expulsion of 22 of their peers because of alleged disciplinary problems, Reuters reported. The expelled students had been demonstrating over the suspicious death, last year, of investigative reporter Norbert Zongo.
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Item: irin-english-2136
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Subscriber: afriweb@sas.upenn.edu Keyword: IRIN
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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