Country Director of Mercy Corps Nigeria, Ndubisi Anyanwu, has expressed optimism that the donation of cowpea processing equipment to 40 women-owned small and medium enterprises in Nigeria will increase their income by 40 percent.
The nonprofit recently announced the distribution of the processing equipment worth $220,000 to women-owned businesses under the USAID-funded Feed the Future Nigeria Rural Resilience Activity (RRA) programme.
Development Diaries gathered that the equipment donated to the enterprises in Kebbi, Niger, Ebonyi, Benue, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Gombe states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were hammer mills, dehydrators, destoners, threshers, and generators.
The items, according to Mercy Corps Nigeria, were provided to improve household nutrition and food security, as well as women’s productivity and competitiveness in agribusiness.
Available data shows that Nigerian women account for 75 percent of the farming population in the country, as they work as farm managers and suppliers of labour.
However, since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the food security crisis in Nigeria has worsened, with over 8.7 million people facing hunger in the country’s northeast subregion alone.
The already fragile value chains, including people’s ability to produce, process and distribute food items were significantly disrupted by the pandemic, sending negative shocks and impacts on the livelihoods of those most vulnerable, especially women and youths.
‘Women and girls are change agents in all aspects of life, and they are a critical part of our society on which we rely upon to meet developmental goals’, Anyanwu said.
The five-year RRA programme, with support from the International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC) and Save the Children (SCI), aims to rapidly expand support services to mitigate the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘This will be particularly important as this expansion [the donation of cowpea processing equipment] helps increase the income of 40 women cowpea processors by 40 percent’, Anyanwu said.
‘This approach aligns and reinforces the Rural Resilience Activity’s approach to women’s economic empowerment (WEE)’.
He also said that the programme was being implemented using the gender equality, diversity, and social inclusion lens to break any biases.
One of the beneficiaries, Precious Odomt, shed tears of joys.
‘The joy is so much so that I am overwhelmed. I have been crying since we got the invitation to come and receive the processing equipment’, Vanguard quoted her as saying.
‘My people in my community at Bwari and Madaki are so excited and cannot wait to have something to process things easily and for production to be smooth’.
Another beneficiary, Jacqueline Ikeotuonye, described the selection process as credible and hectic, saying, ‘I did not lobby it, it is a grant. The selection process was quite hectic and thorough’.
Photo source: Mercy Corps
