The Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Niger Delta, LIFE-ND Project has initiated an organisation, LIFE-ND Innovative Forum, (LAbiF), for the sustainability of its physical achievements after its exit in March, 2025.
This was made known on November 5, by the Abia LIFE-ND State Project Coordinator, Uchenna Rowland Onyeizu, Ph.D, CEnv, during the courtesy visit by the newly inaugurated LAbiF executives in Umuahia, Abia State.
Explaining the essence of LAbiF, Dr Onyeizu said that the Forum would have the responsibility of supervising and sustaining all the beneficiaries' facilities, commodities and their value chains, including marketing, at the Project's point of exit in March, next year.
"The whole essence is for us to charge them of their responsibility of engaging our Incubatees, (beneficiaries), so that they will be guided better.
"As the Project is ending, we are at our exit strategy. It's expected that they get the necessary support from the organisation to enable them to sustain what we've already taught them" said Onyeizu.
Also highlighting the importance of LAbiF, Onyeizu explained that the Forum would be devolved to the 10 selected Local Government Areas in the state, including the 100 Autonomous Communities of the Project's intervention.
However, Dr Onyeizu hinted that the Project, in spite of its official closure in March, next year, the funders had not only given assent to three years additional funding, but had also approved a second phase of another six years, due to exceptional achievements of LIFE-ND Project.
Responding, the newly inaugurated chairman of the Forum, Mr Clement Ikoro said that they were on a fact-finding visit for briefing on operational framework to avoid any kind of failure.
Speaking to the journalists, Mr Ikoro, whose team was inaugurated on September 24, 2024, said,
"I have told him we are ready, up and running. We are going to work because, it's all for our good."
On February 29, 2024, at the national inauguration of LAbiF in Transcorp Hotel, Calabar, Cross River State, the LIFE-ND National Project Coordinator, Dr Sanni Abiodun, addressing journalists said that the Forum guarantees harnessing all the actors and stakeholders to deliberate on the improvement of agricultural productivity, availability of market for products.
This, according Abiodun would include, pursue the required policies and advocacy issues to ensure food security within the Niger Delta region.
"We'll start from the states and ultimately culminate at national level. At state level, four different commodities of cooperative advantage selected for its corporate advantage
"Within this commodities, individual players will be selected - talking about 25 - 30 actors within the state framework to guide the Forum to culminate to national platform where it'll be collective aspiration" Abiodun said.
The LAbiF organisation is the brainchild of Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Niger Delta LIFE-ND, created an enduring sustainability of its successes after its eventual exit.
