SUPPORTING RURAL WOMEN’S ACCESS TO AGRICULTURAL FINANCE IN NIGERIA

The Central Bank Of Nigeria (CBN, 2014), defined agricultural financing as promoting the development of the agricultural sector of the economy by providing credit facilities to household, small and medium scale farmers” (Nigerian Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme,2014 ). It can be in form of liquid cash or farm inputs; fertilizers, seed/seedlings, breeder stocks, feeds, farm equipment and Machinery.

According to Agriculture for Impact, (2017) Agricultural finance is the provision of multiple types of services dedicated to supporting both on- and off-farm agricultural activities and businesses including input provision, production, and distribution, wholesale, processing and marketing.

(CHRIS O. UDOKA, 2013), stated that Women’s access to the services and products provided by Agricultural finance is limited, and this has affected their capability to improve their practices and production. Research has shown that that female-led “agriculture is underperforming, because women do not have equal access to resources they need to be productive” (Adamu, Cordelia Ngodoo. 2014). A research by (ACTIONAID, 2010) highlights the fact that donors are misallocating resources and deepening inequality: the report found that agriculture budgets and financing have overwhelmingly failed to focus on women smallholder farmers, and nearly all agricultural policies ignore the needs and rights of women. As the report states, “most of this policies and their implementation processes are gender blinded”.

Omosebi ayeomoni  and Saheed A.ALADEJANA, (2016). In their research and study,(Agricultural Credit and Economic Growth Nexus.Evidence from Nigeria) showed the correlation of between agricultural finance and how it can affect economic status. (Orjih, 2002.) Stated that improved agricultural credits to rural women will empower them and as well improve the local economic sector from low scale to small scale enterprises.

Challenges to rural women’s access to agro finance:

1. Family responsibilities/Cultural Norms

( Sanusi Lamido, 2012) showed that Socially accepted norms and expected family roles have a profound effect on women’s time, leaving them with less time to work with the agencies responsible for agricultural financing. In rural Nigeria, research has found that most decisions related to agriculture are made by men, and this has limited women’s ability to access credit facilities. Damisa M.A and Yohanna, (2007) study showed that when it comes to decision making, women’s decision was quite minimal. According to their study, “in each of the farm operations, less than 20% of the women were consulted in the sourcing of farm credit; about 13% or less of the women had their opinion considered in each of the farm operations. However, only between 1.0 and 2.5% took the final decision in all of the farm operations”.

2. Biased attitude of banks

Rural women’s access to financial resources, is also limited by biased lending practices that emerges when financial institutions discriminate against women, consider them “illiterate” or inexperienced and therefore less attractive clients (Sanusi Lamido, 2012).

  III.        Lack of Awareness

(Ugwuanyi, 2012.) Stated that Most rural women generally lack knowledge of the agricultural o financincingal options or credits available to them, and most times the opportunity cost of getting this information (in terms of money, time and energy) due to family responsibilities, societal/gender roles.

Other barrierss include: inadequate    collateral    security,    difficult    loan    process    procedures, and high interest rate. Etc.

(Anayo Nkamnebe,2006), stated that “understanding policy formulations with gender mainstreaming will go a long way in shaping how women have access to financial resources, especially in the agricultural sector”. He also highlighted that policy makers should facilitate an enabling environment that will enhance easy access for this rural women to access finances disposed to them.

References

1)         Ngodoo, C., 2014. Inequality Gaps: Issues for Smallholder Farming in Nigeria. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 4(111).

Http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_4_No_11_1_September_2014/29.pdf

2)         Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, B., 2012. INCREASING WOMEN’S ACCESS TO FINANCE: Challenges and Opportunities.

Retrived from http://www.cbn.gov.ng/out/speeches/2012/gov_increasing%20womens%20access%20to%20finance_120712.pdf

3)         Gbemisola Oseni, Markus Goldstein, and Amarachi Utah, 2013. Gender dimensions in agriculture.

Https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/25459

4) . M.A.D. & . M.Y., 2007. Role of Rural Women in Farm Management Decision Making Process: Ordered Probit Analysis. Trends in Applied Sciences Research, 2(3), pp.241–245. Available at: http://www.scialert.net/abstract/?Doi=tasr.2007.241.245 [Accessed February 12, 2017].

5) . M.A.D., . R.S. & . M.Y., 2007. Women Participation in Agricultural Production: A Probit Analysis. Journal of Applied Sciences, 7(3), pp.412–416. Available at: http://www.scialert.net/abstract/?Doi=jas.2007.412.416 [Accessed February 12, 2017].


Written by :

Kevin Ogbajie
A Gender Equality Advocate in Nigeria.