Nigeria’s agricultural sector is set for a major transformation as the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Women Affairs, has unveiled plans to empower 10 million women across the agro-value chain with economically viable initiatives worth N10 trillion.
The initiative, tagged the Women Agro Value Expansion (WAVE) Programme, is designed to elevate women from subsistence farming into thriving agribusiness entrepreneurs, ensuring their full participation in national food production and wealth creation.
Speaking at the National Workshop on Agro-Value Chain Capacity Building in Abuja on Wednesday, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, said the programme would break systemic barriers that have long excluded women from agricultural financing and ownership opportunities.
She emphasized that women constitute about 70% of Nigeria’s agricultural workforce and produce nearly 80% of total output, yet they earn significantly less and own only 10% of farmland.
According to her, the WAVE programme is designed to close this gender gap by providing access to financing, resources, and capacity development.
National Programme Manager of WAVE, Abdullah Mohammed, explained that the project will inject N10 trillion into the hands of women, with projections to translate the investment into over N40 trillion annually.
He noted that beneficiaries will receive customized starter kits based on their regions—covering grain farming, poultry, fisheries, and livestock—alongside sustained monitoring for a five-year period.
“This programme is structured to ensure sustainability. Every participant will be supported with toolkits, guided through cycles of reinvestment, and carried along until they transition from peasant farmers to billionaires,” Mohammed stated.
The minister reaffirmed that President Bola Tinubu remains committed to creating enabling policies and partnerships with private sector stakeholders such as SMK Farms, Hafaz Farms, and Easy Sales Export, to ensure Nigerian women become productive, competitive, and successful players in the agricultural value chain.
