The World Bank has committed a total of $215m to the execution of rural community development projects across the country under its Community and Social Development Programme.

The National Coordinator, CSDP, Dr. Abdulkarim Obaje, disclosed this at the opening of a two-day retreat for supervising ministries and Board of Directors of the CSPD in Abuja on Thursday.

In an implementation report presented at the retreat, Obaje said 31 states of the federation had signed subsidiary loan agreements for the funding mechanism, which is deducted at source through the Ministry of Finance.

According to him, Kaduna is the only state that has indicated interest in joining the CSDP, but has yet to sign the agreement; while Delta and Rivers states are implementing earlier programmes. Kano, Lagos and Jigawa have yet to indicate interest in the programme.

Sectors where the projects are executed to ensure impact on the poor members of the communities include education, water supply, health, rural electrification, transportation and environment.

Obaje listed the challenges facing the community development initiative to include slow pace of implementation of the 2017 budgets across the states, non-adherence to the use of the poverty map, inadequate security in some states, and delays in payment of government contributions by some states.

The Legal Specialist, Social Protection and Labour, World Bank, Nigeria, Mr. Foluso Okunmadewa, said the bank was open to extending funding to more states that want to join the programme.

He said the bank was excited to work with Nigeria on a mechanism that would work.