The Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF) has launched the Urban Agriculture Grant e-voucher card issuance and terminal roll-out in Windhoek.
The rollout will cover four regions identified to benefit from the project titled “Strengthening Namibia food systems to recover from emergencies and disease-related shocks through the Build Back Better (BBB) programme”.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform (MAWLR) – in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the EIF, as a Responsible Party – launched the Urban Agriculture concept- Build Back Better (BBB) Program with financial support from the Japanese Government
This initiative is being implemented in collaboration with the Windhoek Municipality (Khomas Region), Swakopmund Municipality (Erongo Region), Rundu Town Council (Kavango East Region) and the Daweb Constituency (Maltahohe) of the Hardap Region.
The programme will in total support 56 beneficiaries of 13 are from Windhoek Municipality (Khomas Region), 13 from the Swakopmund Municipality (Erongo Region), 17 from Rundu Town Council (Kavango East Region) and 13 from the Daweb Constituency (Maltahohe) of the Hardap Region respectively.
“As the EIF we are ecstatic about this project not only from a grant management perspective but because it talks about food security but more so on Urban Agriculture as most interventions are geared only towards rural food production,” EIF’s Karl Mutani Aribeb said.
Margaret Matengu, Acting Director of the Directorate of Agricultural Production, Extension and Engineering Services in the Ministry of the Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, said “it is only through agriculture that Namibians can empower themselves and especially more of those residing in urban areas.”
The e-voucher system allows the selected beneficiaries to access goods and services from specific selected retailers through the system. There are selected retailers in the various towns that beneficiaries will procure from for the different goods they may require towards the successful implementation of their various projects.
The programme is funded to the tune of N$2 million, which translates to N$ 500 000 per local authority identified under the programme.
