Afoma Adigwe studied film and acting in London but today she is a woman of many parts. The energetic entrepreneur had been an air hostess, actress, designer and she has been passionate about empowering women through her organisation, Uplifting Women Through Farming (UWTF), in the last fifteen years. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, the woman who hails from Issele-Uku in Delta State talks about poor infrastructure, accessing credit facilities for women in the grassroots and why feeding Nigeria and Africa must be given adequate priority.
WHY are you interested in the agricultural sector? My passion has always been for women in agriculture. For me, food is life. We all eat food and we must eat to survive. Agriculture is the only viable alternative to oil and gas. A lot has been said about agricultural development in Africa. Recently, my organisation was invited to partner with African Development Bank from the just concluded high level conference in Senegal tagged, “Feeding Africa: an action plan on transformation of agriculture in Africa” organised by African Development Bank under the auspices of His Excellency, Macky Sall, President of the Federal Republic of Senegal, who co-hosted with the African Union Commission, UN Economic Commission for Africa and Partnership.
Why are you passionate about women?
Over the years, a lot has been said about the key constraints affecting women and youths’ ability in transforming agriculture in Africa. UWTF is here to walk the talk with action. I speak on behalf of our women and our youths who are the leaders of tomorrow. Our focus is not to criticise but to encourage our government and other African countries by reaching out to the different stakeholders. We are in partnership with African Development Bank and the organisation is ready to take a quick action on the solutions of transforming agriculture in Africa to the next level. The Dakar conference was marked by bold decisions to inform on the Action Plan for agricultural transformation in Africa.
What are some of the things that would bring about the required change in the sector?
The intention is to launch an affirmative finance action for women in Africa. The bank would therefore work with partners to leverage 43billion in financing for women farmers, agribusinesses and other women-owned enterprises. This will be achieved through the establishment of a US $300 million facility to derisk financing to women owned businesses by commercial banks and micro finance institutions.
In addition, the central banks in Africa will set aside special funds to allow farmers access credit at reduced interest rates and also for long term agricultural loans with longer term maturity. There would also be increase in commercial financing in the agriculture sector by establishing an agricultural risk sharing facility to de-risk the financial value chain and de-risk the agricultural value chains across the continent. That is not all. Some of the other things being worked on include developing agribusiness Diaspora bonds to securitise remittance flows for investments in African agriculture and agribusiness.
How long have you been doing this?
I have been on this for about fifteen years now. When I started at that time, I told them that it was the alternative to oil and gas. Now you can see the trend, not just in Nigeria but in Arica as a whole. It is important to uplift women through farming. It is important for each stakeholder to partner with the African Development Bank on the transformation agenda. We need to find a lasting solution to agriculture and stop doing lip service to it, now it is action.
My desire is to wake up everybody and I have been advocating that our first ladies should have agriculture as part of the projects they would be working on. A lot of times funds are released for women’s projects but somehow the women do not have access to these funds. I strongly believe that it is better for the women to work together and be able to access what would be beneficial to all.
The problem that grassroots farmers have is lack of information. This, I have studied in the last fifteen years. Of course, we know that the other problem is lack of fund, but, unfortunately, if there is a fund set aside somewhere and I do not know about, how can they access the funds? So, the women are handicapped, most of them do not go to the bank and when they go to the bank, there are so many other limitations waiting for them there.
We know the protocols in the bank. If someone like me cannot get to access the fund, how can the layman access the funds? So, we have to go to the women at the grassroots and solve their developmental needs. Sometimes, these women do not even need the funds. What they need is the facility to work with or infrastructure. When we talk about infrastructure, then we are talking about road, water, land, transportation and electricity. If you give them funds and they pay so much to transport their goods from one point to the other, then they would still not be okay.
We also know what it takes for a woman to own land or property in some parts of the country. Unfortunately, these are some of the things that they ask for as collateral. In the banking system, there is nothing like self identification, so where do these women stand? So, my fight for women has always been how can these women have collateral or be able to access the funds that are set aside for them? We all have to solve this problem collectively. Government must make sure that the right infrastructure is in place.
How do you intend to get to your targets?
I am also targeting not just first ladies in Nigeria but African first ladies, so that all hands would be on deck. Right now, we are planning a summit to get all the African first ladies together; everybody has to wake up. We are also looking at the corporate sector and CEOs of banks and their spouses. If you cannot plant what your husband is eating, farm and produce for Nigeria, plant and produce for Africa. We must all try to produce for Nigeria and bring about a positive change in the economy. If banks can set aside some staff to go look for deposits, how come they cannot go to the grassroots and look for investments?
Experts also believe that farming would help to reduce the problem of unemployment in the country
Agriculture has to go with patience; our youths have to be patient. If you are talking about agriculture, you do not have to grow something today and expect to get the money immediately. We have to start afresh. I was born and bred in Lagos, but now I am back at home because of farming. I have a palm plantation there. We have to take action and get things back on track. A number of people think that it is not interesting but we can learn new ways of framing. How can we do it these days so that our mothers do not carry fire wood on their heads or cassava on their backs?
I started the program in Delta state in year 2000. The first thing I did a workshop on how to make use of cassava and we collaborated with IITA. The following year we work with FAO and later the UN. That was how we started working with women in Kogi state and then spread to other parts of the country. We have been able to access funds from the Nigerian Industrial bank for microfinance.
Recently, I have been putting my house in order to set up a microfinance bank for women. I have always had a relationship with the international community but I prefer to have a bank which the women can access directly. We also have the Agric talk show which I would be anchoring. Here we would have the stakeholders talk about the issues and how to proffer solutions to the problems. What I did was to get people attracted to Agriculture. I have also been doing a number of things with the youths. I have also been collaborating with Embassies and agencies. Let us rise and feed Africa.
