Equipped Niger State officials with the frameworks, toolkits, and institutional architecture needed to attract responsible agricultural investment while protecting customary land rights.
The challenge
Niger State is Nigeria's largest state by land area and among its most agriculturally endowed, yet weak land governance and overlapping customary claims had repeatedly converted investment opportunities into disputes. The 2024 shutdown of a major agro-industrial project after prolonged land contestation made the cost of the status quo impossible to ignore.
Our approach
CISD delivered an eight-module FRILIA curriculum adapted for Niger's institutional context — progressing from principles to operational tools. The curriculum covered the four foundational pillars, Niger's legal and institutional framework, environmental and social safeguards, gender inclusion and customary rights, the eight FRILIA toolkits, and monitoring and evaluation.
Transparency, consultation, and grievance redress are not soft additions to the investment cycle — they are the hard infrastructure on which deal economics ultimately depend.
What we delivered
- A trained cohort equipped to apply FRILIA toolkits in live investment transactions
- A draft Niger State FRILIA adoption roadmap
- An institutional coordination chart mapping MDA roles across the investment cycle
- Priority toolkits identified for first-wave adaptation: GRM, Stakeholder Engagement, and Valuation and Compensation
Outcomes
State-level consensus on NSIPA as the FRILIA coordinating agency; identification of pilot investment zones; alignment of FRILIA indicators with existing state reform reporting cadence.
Partners
Niger State Government · World Bank-supported programme