HerVest, a social enterprise dedicated to providing financial inclusion for women through a Gender Lens Investment (GLI) approach and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has launched a social initiative dedicated to the training of female farmers on agronomy and financial literacy across key Nigerian states.
The social initiative tagged Fund a Female Farmer has touched 2,680 women farmers across five key Nigerian states – Benue, Oyo, Niger, Kaduna and Kwara – in a bid to increase agricultural productivity and yield among smallholder female farmers through expert knowledge and applied best practices covering rice, maize, and soya beans production.
So far, the 2,680 smallholder women farmers who have benefited from the intensive, standardized training outreach backed by the USAID funding boost to HerVest are from Benue State (200); Oyo State (260); Niger State (250); Kaduna State (970) and Kwara State (1,000).
Out of the 2,680 smallholder women farmers who have undergone the USAID funded training, HerVest at the completion of the exercise, has provided financing to 500 smallholder women farmers, with plans underway to finance all the female farmers by end of Q2 2022.
Commenting on the development, Solape Akinpelu, the CEO and Co-founder, HerVest, said; “We are pleased with the successes we have achieved in impacting more Nigerian women farmers through the boost from USAID especially as it helps put more of the smallholder women farmers through the best agronomy practices in the wake of current economic realities. The need to train and finance smallholder female farmers in Nigeria is very critical at this stage of economic recovery post-COVID-19 pandemic.”
She added that; “At the end of the first phase of the exercise, 85% of 2,680 female farmers have expressed increased knowledge on agronomy and financial literacy. This has further renewed our commitment to ensuring more of these women farmers have the right information at all times to help them make better business decisions.”
For the actualisation of this laudable target-specific training programme, HerVest has secured partnerships with state and local government agencies and private organisations such as Kwara State Government; Cofarms Limited; Farming Cooperatives; Olam; Labana rice and Chi Farms in a bid for an inclusive effort to reach more women at all levels.
HerVest is an inclusive digital platform that provides financial growth services to underserved and excluded African women through target savings, impact investing and credit financing- specifically for women farmers in Nigeria.
So far, HerVest has impacted over 5,000 thousand female farmers across Borno, Plateau, Kaduna, Benue, Niger, Oyo, Kwara, and Ogun States.
HerVest has over 20,000 women community members achieving financial wellness through competitive returns on target savings, agro investments, and gender-driven financial literacy resources.
HerVest is downloadable on internet-enabled devices.