By Solomon Umanah
The Nigeria For Women Project (NFWP) is an initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria with support from the World Bank, focused primarily on supporting improved livelihoods for women in targeted states of the federation, namely, Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Niger, Abia, Kebbi and Taraba. It is a five-year programme targeting 54,000 beneficiaries and 3,600 Women Affinity Groups (WAGs) in the respective states.
The project has as its approach four basic components, viz building, social capital through strengthening women’s groups and providing training, providing livelihoods, grants and skills’ training to support economically active women; supporting innovations to improve women’s social and economic outcomes as well as project management, monitoring and evaluation.
In order to measure the success of the four-point approach, NFWP equally has four indicators namely, the number of beneficiaries with improved livelihoods; increase in productive assets of women’s group; increase in women’s contributions to household expenditure as well as number of project beneficiaries segregated by gender and states.
In Akwa Ibom State, the project was initially implemented in three local government areas (Ibesikpo Asutan, Oruk Anam and ONNA) based on their comparative advantage and relative capacity in implementing previous women empowerment programmes. Thereafter, three other local government areas (Abak, Nsit Ubium and Esit Eket) were included in the list of NFWP’s implementing local government areas in the state.
In order to provide policy guidance, ministerial coordination and institutional arrangements as provided in the project implementation manual, two mandatory committees were inaugurated with the State Steering Committee chaired by the State Deputy Governor while the State Technical Committee’s chairmanship was designated to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare. The State Project Coordinating Unit (SPCU) is headed by the State Project Coordinator (SPC) overseeing the day-to-day running of the project in the state.
To ensure successful implementation of NFWP at the local government level, the project uses the Local Project Implementing Units (LPIUs) in the six implementing local government areas supervised by Local Government Area Field Supervisors (LFS) whose duties are to supervise the implementation of the project at the community level assisted by the WAG Support Officers (WAGSOs) and Ward Facilitators (WFs).
Worthy of note is the fact that NFWP’s structure is visible even at the village level. With the formation of WAGs comprising of 15 to 25 women as members in each WAG, the implementation of NFWP’s activities becomes a lot more easier as the WAG members during their weekly meetings are expected to mobilize their own resources, save money together and later borrow from the pool of their savings to invest in their Income Generating Activities (IGAs), thereby enabling them to inculcate the culture of savings, working together to improve their individual and collective livelihoods as well as support their members when in need. To date, these women through their various economic activities have been able to save a total of N 720, 640, 390.
As a way of building the life and business capacity of WAGs, the project, through the WFs, organized series of trainings for the women. These trainings were tailored toward improving the socio-economic activities of the beneficiaries to gain skills in the areas of psycho-emotional entrepreneurship and market responsive technical skills based on sound analysis of livelihood sectors and the market demand. Some of the trainings organized for the women were introduction to savings and credit, financial education, business skills as well as gender and life skills. The trainings were arranged to complement practical skills and knowledge gained by women being part of WAGs including household financial planning, savings and credit concepts which include interest rates, estimated monthly installments, risk management, productive expenditures and group decision making.
To ensure implementation of the Revolving Fund (RF), the SPCU mobilized WFs to facilitate the filling and completion of business plans per individual WAG member which enabled the owner of the plan to obtain funds based on the approval by the project. Proper utilization of the RF has been a propelling force that fosters positive outcomes in livelihoods as well as increased cost of effectiveness and sustainability in self-help groups, village funds, Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) in Africa and Asia.
Currently, each WAG in Akwa Ibom State is entitled to the sum of N840,000 (eight hundred and forty thousand Naira), usually disbursed in two tranches, based on the priorities attached to such fund and the strategy enables the SPCU to monitor the utilization of the fund. As at today, the total sum of N115,594,027 has been disbursed as RF to 1,139 Women Affinity Groups in the state.
The recent media field trip to some of the beneficiaries’ project locations in two of the implementing local government areas (Ibesikpo Asutan and Oruk Anam) organized by Aries CONCEPT, the behavioral change communication firm for NFWP, revealed huge success of the project in the implementing communities.
While conducting the media team round her project location at Ikot Akpan Eda village, Oruk Anam, one of the beneficiaries, Mrs Uduak Udoudo, said she started her piggery business with few pigs but, through the loan obtained from her WAG, she was able to expand the business and diversify into poultry and vegetable farming, thereby generating more income. She expressed appreciation to the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Dr Ini Adiakpan, for mobilizing the women to take advantage of the various programmes put in place by the state government for the empowerment of the women.
A palm oil producer and a beneficiary from Ikot Ikan Village, Ibesikpo Asutan, Mrs. Ndifreke Inyang Job, said, “I have personally benefited from this project because, before this time, I used to borrow money from people to buy just two containers of palm oil to sell. But today, as you can see, I have my palm oil mill where I produce several containers of palm oil and that has dramatically improved my living condition.”
Another beneficiary, Mrs. Grace Ime Umana of Oyoho Ini Abasi WAG, Ikot Akpabin village, Ibesikpo Asutan, disclosed, “Through this project we have been able to feed our children, pay their school fees. When our husbands do not have enough money, we support them in one way or the other. And apart from sale of palm oil, we also sell palm kernel derived from processing of palm oil and we make money from there. So we thank the World Bank and Akwa Ibom State Government for bringing this project to us. May God bless them immensely.”
Also speaking, Mrs. Anyanime Obot, Chairperson of Oyoho Ini Abasi Group, Ikot Akpabin village, had this to say, “I thank God for the vision behind the establishment of the Nigeria For Women Project (NFWP) because, before now, I used to have just one palm oil mill. But, through the assistance of NFWP, I now have two mills. And this has greatly improved my family’s income such that, today, all of us in this WAG are major contributors to our families’ purse and we’ve equally brought development to our communities through our activities. For instance, before the coming of this project, I used to have two staff working with me. But now I’ve been able to employ over 30 women and men working in the two mills and I pay salaries to them at the end of every month.”
The husband of the beneficiary, Mr Anyanime Obot, in his reaction stated, “The only challenge we have is that we need money to acquire one machine called boiler where you can put more palm fruits inside and, within a short time, the content will be ready for final processing. But we sincerely thank Akwa Ibom State government through the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare, the NFWP and the World Bank for the assistance given to us.”
Giving his overall assessment of NFWP’s activities in his community, the NFWP Project Champion in Ikot Ikan village, Ibesikpo Asutan local government area, Obong Edet Udosen posited, “Since I was born and, to this date, this is the first time that I see a well-organized setting where a blue print or policy is implemented in such a way that it produces multiplier effect to the benefit of several families in the state. Truly, this is something remarkable.”
The Head of Operations (HOP) in the SPCU, Mr Nicholas Nwomo, disclosed that NFWP in Akwa Ibom State has achieved a record-breaking performance by exceeding the World Bank’s targeted 54,000 numbers of beneficiaries and 3,600 WAGs with 73,819 beneficiaries and 3,839 WAGs. His words: “Despite the fact that we came in very late into the project, we have been able to attract 73,819 beneficiaries across the six implementing local government areas with 3,839 Women Affinity Groups (WAGs) formed, exceeding the World Bank’s targeted 54,000 beneficiaries and 3,600 Women Affinity Groups.”
Nwomo, who lauded Governor Umo Eno for approving the scale up fund for the implementation of the NFWP in the state, assured that the commitment made by the state government for the scale up will spur them up to visit other communities that are yet to benefit from the project in the state.
The Head of Operations and Communications, Aries CONCEPT, Adesola Oyawoye, expressed satisfaction at the level of implementation of NEWP’s programmes in the state.
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