Search NaijaAgroNet

Showing posts with label Empowerment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Empowerment. Show all posts

Monday, October 9, 2023

YEAP dangles N500m for agro-youth empowerment - NaijaAgroNet

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Participants in the Oyo State’s Youth Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness Project (YEAP) are to benefit from the N500 million loan the government is rolling out to support agribusiness as part of its Sustainable Actions for Economic Recovery (SAfER), reports NaijaAgroNet.
SAfER: Oyo rolls out loans for YEAP beneficiaries - ITREALMS
YEAP is an Oyo State programme targeted at training young people in modern technology-driven agribusinesses and providing them with enterprise support.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

ICTs essential to empowerment, success of poor rural women

The role of information communications technologies in supporting rural women's economic empowerment, voice and status, was the focus of discussions at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on 8 March, International Women’s Day, reports NaijaAgroNet.

IFAD, together with United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), will highlight the role that innovations in information and communications technologies (ICTs) can play in expanding rural women's opportunities in value chains and enterprise development, while increasing their access to education and information.

Many women, particularly young rural women, lack access to productive resources such as land, credit and technology. Women lag behind in terms of their access to ICTs, with only 41 per cent of women in low-and middle income countries owning mobile phones compared to 46 per cent for males. Nearly two-thirds of women living in the South Asia and East Asia and Pacific sub-regions do not own a mobile phone. Rural women regularly lack access to health care, education, decent work and social protection. As a consequence, they are more likely to be poor and they are vulnerable to economic and climatic shocks.


ICTs can go a long way to boosting economic opportunities for rural women. Mobile and smartphones, for example, provide access to real-time information on prices in different markets and allow more informed choices about where and when to buy and sell. Studies indicate that when women earn money, they are more likely than men to spend it on food for their families and the education of their children.

Uj. N. Dominic/ED, OP

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Rural women empowerment, fundamental for achieving 2030 agenda – UN agencies

The trio of United Nations (UN) agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and World Food Programme (WFP) have said that rural women empowerment is fundamental for achieving the 2030 agenca, reports NaijaAgroNet.

As said by the leaders of these organisations, the world that women and girls play a crucial role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular, the goal of eradicating hunger and extreme poverty become more realistic.

The leaders of these agencies made this joint statement in commemoration of International Women's Day by reinforcing their commitments to step up efforts to invest in the capacities of rural women as key agents of change in building a world without hunger.

"Women play a critical role in agriculture and food systems - not just as farmers, but also as food producers, traders and managers," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva on the occasion of the Day. "However, women still face major constraints in rural labour markets and in agricultural value chains. They are more likely to be in poorly paid jobs, without legal or social protection. This limits women's capacity to advance their skills, earn incomes and access employment opportunities." 

Graziano da Silva noted that the future of global food security depends on unleashing women's potential. "Achieving gender equality and empowering women are crucial ingredients in the fight against extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition which is strongly recognized by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," he said.

IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze said, "We need to face the fact that we will never overcome poverty and hunger without empowering rural women."

For him, there are ample evidence from around the world that greater empowerment of women in rural and urban areas leads to higher economic growth and a better quality of life for women and men alike. 

“Despite progress, it is still the case today that rural women's double burden of farm labour and unpaid domestic work prevents them from participating fully and fairly in income-generating activities. Improving rural women's access to technologies that save time and labour is essential to reducing their workloads. Transforming gender relations within the family is also crucial to empowering women and enabling them to make decisions about their lives," he said.

WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin said, "Empowering women economically is one of the key steps to realizing gender equality and achieving Zero Hunger. The changing world of work - as patterns of economic activity shift - provides the opportunity to achieve these goals.


"Ensuring women have adequate access to land, tools, fertilizers and credit improves their lives and the lives of their families; potentially freeing millions from hunger. We also know that school meals are a powerful incentive to keep girls in class, boosting their chances of completing school and finding employment. Enabling women to seize these opportunities will transform lives and help bring the Sustainable Development Goals within reach," she said.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Maina lauds MTN over women empowerment


The Federal Minister in-charge of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Zainab Maina, has lauded MTN Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility initiative of MTN Nigeria, for empowerment of Nigerians, especially the widows, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Hajia Maina gave this commendation at the presentation of tools of trade to beneficiary widows, under the Foundation's new initiative for empowering widows tagged, MTNF Widows Empowerment Scheme, in Abuja.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Widows Empowerment Scheme by MTN Foundation is being managed by Growing Businesses Foundation and aimed at empowering widows who have existing businesses, across the six geo-political zones of the country.

Also, Hajia Maina urged that such positive intervention be emulated by other organisations, especially in telecommunications sector. Stressing that widows comprise a significant proportion of women, ranging from 7 to 16 per cent of all adult women, noting that it is regrettable that this significant section of the population is neglected in the society, especially due to their state of widowhood and the various traditional laws and customs which work against them, thus preventing them from gaining access to resources that will better their lot.

"Nigeria should abide by the United Nations' declaration during the 2013 International Widows Day which states that 'all widows should be protected by the rights established in the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and other international human rights treaties. Equal opportunity bill and violence against persons bill presently receiving attention at the National Assembly would greatly benefit widows, when passed into law," she said.

Equally speaking, a Director of MTN Foundation, Mr. Dennis Okoro, said the scheme was the result of a stakeholder's workshop held in October 2011, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.

Pointing out that the workshop highlighted areas of need for widows in communities and discussed ways of empowering them to meet those needs, eventually an Expression of Interest (EoI) was declared and five states, including Imo, Taraba, Lagos, Rivers and Sokoto, in addition to the Federal Capital Territory, representing the six geo-political zones of the country, were selected.

“After an analysis of the needs assessment forms, 226 widows were selected to benefit from the scheme,” he asserted.

Okoro further disclosed that adopting a micro-finance model, the successful beneficiaries were trained on business management skills and to be mentored by two microfinance institutions, namely the Lift Above Poverty (LAPO) and Development Exchange Centre (DEC) to ensure sustainability of the project.

Additionally, he said, beneficiaries were later presented with tools of trade to boost their existing business ventures as interest-free loans, explaining that the loans were expected to be repaid over a 10 month period, with a two month moratorium.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology
Photo: Hajia Zainab Maina

Friday, August 10, 2012

Solar empowerment for Nigerian women

Women @ the Training Workshop

          The need to empower Nigerian women, especially in the area of technical know-how for solar lanterns and mobile phone chargers as shown by Solar Jooce and partners, is an encouraging initiative that deserves commendation and support, writes REMMY NWEKE.
When you educate a woman, you educate a nation,” those were probably the words of the elders, which have continued to be relevant now and in the future.

The above quote has become a mantra of sort for women advocacy groups and even some men right activists, women in many countries have been often than not classified as bulk of every population, yet women comprise the largest marginalized group in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank’s statistical analysis on African gender programmes.
In spite of the fact that the economic empowerment for women has formed topics of discussion at various women economic programmes and also as a Millennium Development Goal (MDG), remain unresolved to a large extent.
DigitalSENSE News recalls that recently during this year’s Women and Girls in ICT Day, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré emphasized on ITU Plenipotentiary Resolution 70 of 2010, which instituted fourth Thursday of April annually to be Women and Girls ICT Day.
He noted that women are the bedrock of the societies and pillars of strength in every family as well as the community. Yet, gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched. Pointing out that women and girls are denied access to basic health care and education and equal opportunities at work. 
 
Additionally, Dr. Toure said, women face segregation in economic, political and social decision-making and often suffer violence and discrimination, declaring that this situation is unacceptable and must be addressed with all the means available to ITU, including technologies.
Thus experts at renewableenergyworld.com, classified renewable energy technologies to include solar, wind power, geothermal, bio-energy, hydro-power, ocean, hydrogen and fuel cells alongside other supportive energy systems.
Obviously in line with such a call by ITU boss, the management of Solar Jooce Nigeria, recently entered into a deal with the British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) to empower women with practical training on solar devices.
In an interview with the project coordinator for Solar Jooce, Anne Agbakoba, said in Lagos that Solar Jooce is a social enterprise dedicated to improving the quality of life of rural communities in Nigeria that have little or no access to electricity.

She also said that the recently concluded first phase of training of some rural Oyo women, who received training on how to repair basic solar lanterns and phone charging units.

She pointed out that this follows the sealing of the deal to train these rural women in Oyo State between the Executive Director, BATN Foundation, Mr. Gbenga Ibikunle and the chief executive officer, Solar Jooce, Mr. David Agbakoba.

The Solar Jooce boss, Mr. Agbakoba was quoted as saying that of the world’s 1.6 billion people living without electricity, 80 per cent live in Sub Saharan Africa.
Women @ the Training Workshop

Agbakoba, revealed to DigitalSENSE News that the main objective of the agreement in its pilot stage was to train an initial 20 rural ladies to become solar technicians and to help them set up solar micro-business.

This, she said, has kicked-off with the training which covers four local governments in Oyo State, namely Itesiwaju, Kajola, Oyo West, and Iseyin. The exercise, she said, is meant to empower the ladies to light up their communities and spread the use of solar as an alternative to dangerous and expensive fossil fuelled lighting such as the kerosene lamps.

She also confirmed to DigitalSENSE News that the initiative would be moved to other states across the federation with the collaboration of British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation, an independent charitable organization incorporated in Nigeria with the vision to improve the quality of life of citizens in rural and urban in Nigeria.

Equally, she explained that the initiative entails a marketing and financial management training entitled ‘Growing your new solar Micro-business’ which was conducted in Yoruba by Mrs. Yemi Owolabi, executive director, Finance of Standard Chartered Bank, Nigeria.

Head Trainer at the session and a Kenyan, Mr. Momanyi Oreri said he was delighted to have come to Nigeria under an Africa-Africa co-operation. He was amazed by how fast the rural women - illiterate, semi literate and literate; grasped the concept of diodes, resistors among others and were able to produce lanterns in four weeks.

One of the lady trainees, Mrs. Musiliu Olaitan, fondly called ‘Alhaja-Jesu’ because she recently converted from Islam to Christianity, said she was an illiterate but the training had given her the confidence to feel like a literate, that is to say, she could now do the impossible, and an opportunity to start a lucrative solar micro-business.

The Solar Jooce women’s empowerment initiative, DigitalSENSE News gathered, is a small step in the frightening task of providing a clean, alternative source of electricity, alleviating poverty, and providing opportunities for rural families in Nigeria.

Also, DigitalSENSE News recalls that the training workshop supported by the Hertz Corporation, C & I Leasing (transport & logistics), Sesema PR and the Bishop of Ajayi Crowther Diocese, Bishop O. O. Oduntan, is the first phase of the initiative, which consist of massive awareness creation about the use and benefits of solar applications through the donation of combined solar lantern and phone charging unit to a community in the 36 states of the country.

Ms Agbakoba further revealed that the second phase has been structured to be a long-term capacity building scheme to train women in the assembling and troubleshooting solar applications in order for them to be able to start their own small solar trade with its first pilot in June 2012.

As we look forward to the second, which is likely to produce another round of at least, 20 rural women participant at the end, it’s important that the organization gets support to deliver on its promise of taking the project across all the six geo-zones in the country.

If nothing else, these women should be encouraged by at least patronage from their communities of the lanterns assembled by them and given the opportunity to fix them when at fault. That way, they may not only be improving on their technical expertise of the solar tools, but have the courage to employ other women in their communities with adequate empowerment.


... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

Friday, July 27, 2012

OYES drafts 600 youths into agric programmes

The Osun state Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) has drafted over 600 of its members into the Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme (O-REAP) as disengagement programme for members of the cadets.
Mr. Wale Adedoyin, the state Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security said the drafting of OYES cadets is in a bid to boost government’s intervention in the agricultural sector.
NaijaAgroNet learnt that Osun State government would provide soft loan as well as allocate land for beneficiaries of O-REAP Youth Academy.
The commissioner also said that the fear by members of the OYES cadets on the proposed disengagement programme led to the land allocation and soft loans.
Adedoyin further revealed that a sum of N476.35 million has been disbursed to 3,535 farmers under the Government Guaranteed Agricultural Loan scheme, while N45,662,965.00 was disbursed as O-REAP loan to 268 farm families across the state.
Admin/LS
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Solar Jooce, BATNF train women solar technicians


Women at the training exercise
          In a bid to reduce unemployment among women in Nigeria, Solar Jooce and British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) have concluded the first phase of training of the some rural Oyo women on assemblage and repairs of basic solar lanterns and phone charging units.
This follows the recent signing of an agreement to train these rural women in Oyo State and sealed between the Executive Director, BATN Foundation, Mr. Gbenga Ibikunle and the chief executive officer, Solar Jooce, Mr. David Agbakoba.
Speaking on the development, Solar Jooce boss, Mr. Agbakoba noted that of the world's 1.6 billion people living without electricity, 80 per cent live in Sub Saharan Africa.
Solar Jooce, a social enterprise dedicated to improve the quality of life of rural communities in Nigeria that have little or no access to electricity, through its coordinator, Anne Agbakoba, revealed to NaijaAgroNet that the main objective of the agreement in its pilot stage was to train an initial 20 rural ladies to become solar technicians and to help them set up solar micro-business.
This, she said, has kicked-off with the training which covers four local governments in Oyo State, namely Areas in Oyo state - Itesiwaju, Kajola, Oyo West, and Iseyin. The exercise, she said, is meant to empower the ladies to light up their communities and spread the use of solar as an alternative to dangerous and expensive fossil fuelled lighting such as the kerosene lamps.
She also confirmed to NaijaAgroNet that the initiative would be moved to other states across the federation with the collaboration of British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation, an independent charitable organization incorporated in Nigeria with the vision to improve the quality of life of citizens in rural and urban in Nigeria.
Women at the training exercise 
Equally, she explained that the initiative entails a marketing and financial management training entitled ‘Growing your new solar Micro-business’ was conducted in Yoruba by Mrs. Yemi Owolabi, executive director, Finance of Standard Chartered Bank, Nigeria.
The Solar Jooce women’s empowerment initiative, NaijaAgroNet gathered, is a small step in the daunting task of providing a clean, alternative source of electricity, alleviating poverty, and providing opportunities for rural families in Nigeria.
NaijaAgroNet recalls that the training workshop is also supported by the Hertz Corporation, C & I Leasing (transport & logistics), Sesema PR, and the Bishop of Ajayi Crowther Diocese, Bishop O. O. Oduntan.
The first phases of the initiative was a massive awareness creation about the use and benefits of solar applications through the donation of combined solar lantern and phone charging unit to a community in the 36 states of the country.
Further, the second phase, NaijaAgroNet gathered is a long-term capacity building scheme which to train women in the assembling and troubleshooting solar applications in order for them to be able to start their own small solar trade with its first pilot in June 2012.
Remmy Nweke
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Capacity trends in Nigeria’s agro value chain


Ordinarily, a value chain depicts a chain of activities for a firm operating in a particular industry, like agriculture.
Typically, the agriculture activities very often start with the search for seedlings, followed by the fertilizer acquisition after the clearing of farm lands, only then can the seedlings be planted.
Nowadays, there are various sets of people who specialize in various farming including clearing of lands and in the eastern Nigeria, those are known as the ‘Abakalikis.’ They are also useful during the harvest seasons, according to Madam Okwy, rice farmer at Awba-Ofemili in Anambra State.
She says, another value chain of note are those who put the seedlings on the grounds or cleared farm land for such purposes and those usually coming from neighbour towns, where either wages for farm workers are very low or lack the relevant arable lands. These set of workers go to their home towns as soon as the planting season is over, but once its harvest time, they return.
The food industry has been severally described as a complex, and a collection of diverse businesses that congregate to supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population.
Therefore, it is pertinent to state that though subsistence farmers; those known to grow for self or mere family survival could be considered outside of the scope of the modern food industry, because their original plan was not to engage in large scale farming for commercial purposes.
So, food industry  could be rightly said to involve several stages including regulation at different levels; be it local, regional, national and international rules and regulations for food production and sales, consist of food quality and food safety, and industry lobbying activities.
And to unlock the potential of agriculture to create jobs, the Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, disclosed that there is need to engage the energy, dynamism and entrepreneurship of the youth.
Adesina said that the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration no longer treats agriculture as a development programme, declaring that the goal of the government is to treat agriculture as a business and to make the nation an agriculturally industrialized economy.
To this end, he said that under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, this administration intends to add some 20 million tonnes of food to the domestic food supply with the creation of 3.5 million jobs in all the agriculture value chains before the end of year 2015.
Subsistence farming, he noted, is not viable to feed a nation, hence the importance of expanding the level of use of tractors in the country to boost the agriculture investment by small, medium and large scale farmers.
According to him, agriculture sector is the fastest in terms of employment generation, thus has the capacity to change the trend of economic growth in the country.
Adesina in his remarks at the Ekiti State’s Youth in Commercial Agribusiness Development Programme recently, noting that Governor Kayode Fayemi’s decision to involve the state’s youth in agriculture deserves commendation.
To raise the level of use of improved seeds, Adesina said his Ministry financed the entire seed supply for the country which amounts to N2.7 billion for the 2012 season, adding that the finance, is not from the government but the use of guarantees for banks to lend to seed companies.
Also, he affirmed that the Federal Government was able to secure financing for the supply of fertilizers for 2012, at the level of N27 billion from commercial banks using guarantees from the Ministry of Finance.
In a related development an agreement to establish and implement an agricultural development project was signed by Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO).
Alhaji Muhammad Nadada Umar, SMEDAN Director-General said the agreement, tagged SMEDAN-VSO Agro-Enterprise Project, is to engage women and youths between the ages of 18 and 35 years in agrobiz.
NaijaAgroNet learnt at the signing session that the agreement combines expertise of both bodies would add tremendous value to the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and the nation’s economy.
The pilot programme, Umar revealed would be established in four states; Nasarawa, Ondo, Kaduna and Cross Rivers States. Pointing out, “Our organizations both share the same values in respect of assisting disadvantaged people. SMEDAN, as a gender-sensitive organization, with our high level of professionalism, has a lot to offer to this nation.”
It was not surprising therefore that a multi-million Naira assembly plant was being targeted, a North American company, AGCO which specializes in manufacturing of agricultural equipments, in anticipation of Nigeria’s dream to grow the sector with 300,000 within the next three years.
AGCO, DigitalSENSE News gathered, offers a full product line including tractors, combines, hay tools, sprayers, forage equipment, groundscare and implements through more than 8,500 independent dealers and distributors around the world.
DigitalSENSE News investigations also revealed that AGCO is likely to provide this number of tractors through its worldwide retail financing scheme known as Agricredit joint venture.
Experts at Investopedia says joint venture is the cooperation of two or more individuals or businesses in which each agrees to share profit, loss and control in a specific enterprise. Describing it as a good way for companies to partner without having to merge and are typically taxed as a partnership.
Affirming this development, Dr. Adesina, emphasised that AGCO is the largest manufacturer of Marcy Ferguson tractors globally and that Federal Government has advanced strategies for the establishment of assembly plants in the country following a discussion with the manufacturer in April.
“Nigeria needs at least 300,000 tractors, to enable our youth to get into agriculture as a business,” he declared, pointing out that already the Nigerian government has concluded farmers’ census, while introducing an agric-wallet and employment of 36 agriculture directors, who have been deployed nationwide at the state capitals.
As we look forward to a better youth empowerment with all these laudable government programmes, it is high-time to walk the talk, while the Universities of Agriculture across the country should take up adequate research initiatives on agricultural related products for better production at the end of every farming season.


... Linking agrobiz, people & technology