Innovating to eliminate poverty and food insecurity in Nigeria has been an ongoing concern for many organisations; both government and non-government. It has become a mission considered critical in a world where poverty and food insecurity are being defeated, yet, the reverse remains in Nigeria.
The Crop Prospects and Food Situation Report in December 2020 indicated that Nigeria’s inability to feed itself is attributable to “Persisting conflict in northern areas”. About 9.8 million Nigerians were assessed to be in need of humanitarian assistance between October and December 2020, as further stated according to the latest “Cadre Harmonisé” analysis.
The little things that appear insignificant, such as a chicken or goat being transferred to a rural family, are not the same for people living below the poverty line, and who by extension of poverty are not able to indulge in nutritious feeding.
In Kebbi and Adamawa states for instance, the PROACT project, funded by the European Union and Oxfam International, targeted 35,000 households (but now 68,000) and has over five years tackled food and nutrition insecurity as a result of diminishing agricultural production, natural disasters, depleting food reserves and conflicts in Northern Nigeria.
Poverty is cornered in what can be likened to an attack from multiple fronts; as seen in this program, through 25 phases that have improved the living standards of rural dwellers. Consistent and with intensity, the extremely poor are getting a chance to live meaningfully, and contribute positively to their societies as well.
At the core of this process is Financial Inclusion, which starts as what has been called Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA). A VSLA is a group of 15-25 people who save together and take small loans from those savings. Members save through the purchase of between 1 – 5 shares every meeting. The Loan Fund is comprised of money contributed in the form of shares and loan profits (from service charges). The group may have a social fund from which grant may be given to support members in difficult times as agreed by the members of the group. VSLA runs in cycle of 12months (1 year). This is aimed at bringing about financial inclusion for the rural dwellers who are mostly excluded from the “complex” modern financial institutions.
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VSLA is a platform for increased financial inclusion for the vulnerable in rural communities. There are over 1,600 of such groups across Kebbi state, which was recently visited.
Umale Ibrahim, a middle-aged woman was unable to join any VSLA when she first heard about it, as according to her, she was not engaged in any form of business or job to be able to make financial contributions. With time, she saw others through micro loans being able to gradually improve their standards of living and decided to join. When she joined, she still wasn’t doing anything, and so asked her husband to support her with the required weekly contributions.
After some months, she was able to access her first loan of N15,000 used to buy maize that she in turn processed to maize flour and a local confectionary called Masara.
As that business expanded, she started selling grains, and from all these the loan was repaid. As the program progressed, it came to support female farmers with inputs such as fertilisers and she again was able to access six bags for farming. Where she used to harvest 15 bags of grains, she was able to double the output and with the income bought goats in addition to what she had before. After some time, she sold all her goats and added some money to pay a deposit of 40 percent for a milling machine.
It was at this milling machine in Akalawa community that she was interviewed, proudly showing off her modest business that has grown to include another milling machine she says is used to process groundnuts. She has two milling machines now and employed two people, at the time of this interview. Ibrahim is excited mostly because, from being unable to afford to join a VSLA, she can now support her husband and contribute financially towards raising their children.
Her story is not an isolated one, but that of thousands of poor people who took the first step out of poverty and food insecurity, by getting financially included through a VSLA group.
Kaltume Abubakar, a mother of six who belonged to the Allah Kabarai VSLA runs a furniture refurbishing shop. A trade not usually plied by females, she joined the VSLA three years ago when the business was barely growing. Her first loan was used to cultivate rice, ploughing the returns after her harvest into the furniture business for it to become what she is now proud to show off, albeit still modest.
“I never thought I could own N50,000 of my own”, said Abubakar who in a day says she can now have up to N150,000. People in the community now look up to her, and when they want to marry of their children, but can’t afford furniture she extends credit to them by providing the items they need.
During the floods last year, her family lost their home, but beside the furniture shop stood a building nearing completion for the family to move into. Though one bedroom self-contained (with sitting room, kitchen, bathroom), it is for her, an achievement.
Her membership of a group that made her financial included and eligible to access capital for her business, has managed to tip her across the extreme poverty line. While her initial capital five years ago was about N40,000, she says the business is now worth over N500,000.
She now employs five people in her furniture business, and as she emphasised, the group has helped not just her but other women. It has also improved relationships between husbands and wives, as women are not seen as cost centres, but value adders to the families. There are a lot of men that did not have money for dry season farming, but their wives through membership of VSLAs helped secure loans for them to farm.
Abubakar herself collected N40,000 which she gave to her husband for him to purchase fertilisers for the current dry season farming for rice. All six children of the couple are in school and she is able to contribute to their education.
From financial inclusion, ensuring families are able to feed properly is perhaps the ultimate goal. The VSLAs are a way of identifying individuals and working with them in clearly defined clusters.
On a sunny Thursday, a livestock transfer ceremony was held, where excited women received goats from other women from VSLA groups. For them, the goats were a seed they were planning would multiply and feed their families; breeding till they could sell, and for direct consumption sometime in the near future. For individuals who could live on a single type of meal (especially if they produced a certain type of grain), this over the years has proven to be a way of boosting nutrition.
“I am very happy to be given this livestock. I pray that God will help me to take care of it, at least until it can produce very well,” said Fati Yahaya, one of the five women that received goats that afternoon. “I hope that by the time it reproduces it will increase my assets and in years to come I can sell some to take care of my needs.”
By next year, she expects it to produce two offspring and in turn give one out to another beneficiary determined by the VSLA.
There are other components of the 25-faceted-approach to support food security including the farmer training school where they are trained on good agricultural practices. Important for sustaining food security is the food loan, where families are given grains during the lean season while they repay after harvest. These are kept in grain banks they have been supported to construct in their communities, through yet another strategy called ‘Cash for Work’.
It is a revolving food loan, but remains within their community. As a farmer returns, it is kept in the grain bank for loan during the next lean season, and the cycle continues. Most grain banks can hold 150 bags of grains at about 100kg per bag of maize, millet, rice etc. 200 of such grain banks were constructed across selected locations in Kebbi, with grains provided for takeoff and left for the communities to multiply after borrowing from them during periods of ‘no food’.
It looks simple, but for the thousands of current beneficiaries, it has gradually erased the line between them, hunger and near-starvation, which they easily fell into in the decades before these initiatives came up.
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