ActionAid: Only 23% of women have access to credit facilities in agric sector

ActionAid Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation, says women in the country have low access to government interventions, especially in the agricultural sector.

Azubike Nwokoye, chairman of the national gender steering committee for the implementation of the national gender policy in agriculture for Nigeria, said this in Abuja on Friday.

Nwokoye, also the food and agriculture programmes coordinator, Action Aid Nigeria; spoke when the committee paid a visit to the head of the civil service of the federation (OHCSF).

He said about 77 percent of Nigerian women lack access to government credits like those in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial institutions.

Nwokoye said only 23 percent of women have access to such interventions, which is low.

“Our data shows that in terms of processing facilities across the 36 states and FCT, smallholder women farmers have access to only about 18 percent and 16 percent in terms of storage facilities,” he said.

“For the first time in Nigeria, the federal ministry of agriculture and rural development had come up with a gender policy in agriculture because of the large gap in terms of the variability of women across Nigeria, especially in the agricultural sector.

“Recent data by ActionAid Nigeria shows that in terms of processing facilities across the 36 states and FCT, smallholder women farmers have access to only about 18 percent; in terms of storage facilities 16 percent; market access is quite low, transportation is less than 10 percent; 50 percent in terms of access to land and the access is not controlled. It could be leasing or renting. Ownership is just about twenty-something percent.”