The Tony Elumelu Foundation has promised to support female farmers especially those in rural areas in Nigeria.
The Director, Partnerships and Communications, TEF, Somachi Chris-Asokula, revealed this at a private sector meeting in Lagos, on Wednesday, organised by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in collaboration with the Nigerian Red Cross Society.
Chris-Asokula stated that the foundation will collaborate with the SheFarmers Initiative to accomplish this and that ideas, particularly those that address TEF’s priority sustainable development goals, were more important than schooling when it came to qualifying for financing at TEF.
The TEF, according to her, is constantly looking for new ways to support young Africans in becoming the change that the continent needs. She claimed that entrepreneurship was the most sustainable way to transform the continent.
The organization was already in discussions with the Namibian government to assist young Namibians in accessing money, she added, in addition to Nigerians.
“35% of TEF beneficiaries are from rural areas, but our goal is to achieve 40%. Also 48-50% of beneficiaries are women and we would be very interested in partnering with SheFarmers Initiative to reach much more rural women with access to funding.
“The goal at TEF is to connect entrepreneurs to the key things needed for success which are; money, mentorship, market and business tools to build businesses that can lead to employment and sustainability in the various communities of the beneficiaries.
“Entrepreneurship is the most sustainable way to transform the continent and it is the answer to what africans are currently facing.
“We at the TEF have empowered 1.2m young africans across all 54 countries on the continent and we are looking for ways to do more.” She added.
The President, SheFarmers Initiative, Temitope Ande praised the TEF and the IFRC for their contributions to the empowerment and alleviation of poverty among young Nigerians, particularly women. However, she asserted that there was a gap between urban and rural women that needed to be closed.
She said, “The disconnect between women in rural areas and women in urban areas is really huge and for us to achieve all we have addressed here today, as regards climate change, access to funding, enlightenment at the grassroots, we will need to close that gap.
Ande added, “In our own way of helping to address climate change, we advocate tree planting through farming, which also aids economic development. We have been able to get the government to accept this initiative of planting coconut trees in the 36states.
“We started with coconut trees because we realised that for some reason Nigeria was beginning to import coconut from neighbouring countries, especially in 2020 during the lockdown. We couldn’t let that happen.
“We have gone further to partner with the Namibian government to export coconut and shea butter to them and also plant their trees in Namibia. That way we are contributing to economic growth and stability here in Nigeria, while caring for the environment.”
Head, Impact and Sustainability, Verod Capital Management, Chigozie Ejimogu, who addressed investment at the forum, insisted that the government needed to develop policies that would not chase investors away.
