The Bank of Industry under the Government Enterprise and
Empowerment Programme has signed an agreement with Oxfam to disburse N200m to
Oxfam’s Village Saving and Loan Associations in Nassarawa, Benue and Plateau
states.
The money is expected to strengthen the living capacity and
resilience of poor households in rural communities.
According to Oxfam, the partnership is born out of the need
to target the most marginalised and hard to reach in the rural communities in
line with the objectives of the Federal Government’s social intervention
policy.
The initiative,
tagged ‘GEEP MarketMoni’ provides the first batch of the loans meant to expand
the activities of about 500 farmer groups in some communities in the three
states.
“The BoI is executing the Federal Government’s micro-credit
initiative, the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme; while Oxfam’s
implementing partners, Young Men Christian Association, Nigerian Association of
Women in Agriculture, and Cocin Community Development Programme, will be
responsible for monitoring and supporting the beneficiaries to effectively
utilise the funds in Nassarawa, Benue and Plateau states, respectively,” the
Deputy Country Director of Oxfam Nigeria, Mr. Constant Tchona, said in a
statement.
Tchona said Oxfam’s Village Savings and Loans Associations
are self-managed community-based groups that provide their members access to
basic financial services.
Each group is said to be made up of “self-selected 15 to 25
individuals who meet regularly (usually weekly or fortnightly) to save and, if
desired, borrow for short periods, paying monthly interest at a rate set by the
group,” he added.
According to him, apart from the primary goal of increasing
access to credit to the ’unbanked’ at the bottom of the pyramid, the scheme has
significantly improved community cohesion and active citizenship in communities
where the project is being implemented while building the resilience of rural
farmers towards saving for unforeseen circumstances.
He said women who hitherto did not have voice or engaged in
community governance issues had become very vocal and confident as a result of
their participation in the scheme, hence greatly improving their leadership
skills.
The Executive Director, Microenterprise Directorate at the
BoI, Mrs. Toyin Adeniji, said the funds were part of the Federal Government’s mandate to the BoI
to achieve, amongst others, financial inclusion and access to credit for 1.6
million beneficiaries across target segments of market women and traders,
artisans, enterprising youths, agricultural workers, agro-allied processors and
other MSME categories.
This, she said, was in furtherance of the attainment of
poverty eradication, employment generation, growth and development of micro
enterprises in the country.
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