Stakeholders have commended the Ijebu Development Initiative on Poverty Reduction for its financial performance in 2024 and grassroots empowerment programmes.
The commendation came during its 25th Annual General Meeting held recently in Ijebu-Ode, the Ogun State capital.
IDIPR is a community-based non-governmental organisation. The initiative’s core objective is poverty reduction and improving livelihoods. Since its inception in 1999, IDIPR has been using its enterprise development, microfinance, youth development, and medical and health programmes to combat poverty.
Chairman of the initiative, Professor Abeke Adesanya, revealed that IDIPR recorded its highest-ever gross income of N137.9m in the 2024 financial year, double its previous record, despite Nigeria’s tough economic conditions, including inflation and food insecurity.
Adesanya said the initiative had remained a catalyst for socioeconomic transformation in Ijebuland, with significant achievements in enterprise development, agriculture, youth empowerment, and education.
To date, IDIPR has conducted 188 capacity-building workshops, training over 19,000 individuals, while its Eriwe Farm Village has hosted 275 interns and students on industrial attachment. Its microfinance scheme has disbursed N1.85bn in revolving loans to 13,462 beneficiaries, with a 99.1 per cent loan recovery rate.
In the agricultural sector, IDIPR’s aquaculture unit produced 1,782 metric tonnes of catfish valued at N4.73bn, alongside major contributions from poultry, piggery, and rubber plantations, which generated N197.5m from 190 tonnes of latex.
The Tricycle Transport Scheme, backed by a cumulative N990m interest-free loan from the Grand Patron, the late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, has distributed 850 tricycles, with 530 fully repaid, achieving a 100 per cent recovery rate.
The Initiative also launched the Prof. Akinlawon Mabogunje Digital Skills Centre, now an internationally certified training and testing hub for digital literacy in the region.
Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees Chairman, Olu Okuboyejo, announced his retirement and introduced Lekan Bello as his successor.
