Women farmers in Northern Nigeria have been urged to play a more strategic role in driving national food security by tapping into the region’s vast agricultural opportunities.
At a one-day workshop themed “Ready to Take Your Agribusiness to the Next Level”, organized by Micro Development Consulting Limited (MDCL),a women focused development support firm—participants were encouraged to move beyond subsistence farming and adopt agriculture as a viable business.
The event brought together key stakeholders, including representatives from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bank of Agriculture, Bank of Industry, NIRSAL, as well as commercial banks such as Jaiz Bank and other Deposit Money Banks, who showcased various financial products and support schemes available to women in agribusiness.
Discussions and expert presentations covered topics such as building an entrepreneurial mindset in agriculture, transitioning from subsistence to agribusiness, and case studies of successful women-led agricultural enterprises in Nigeria.
Facilitators included Aminu Alhassan Fagge, Associate Professor at the Centre for Dryland Agriculture, Bayero University, Kano; Jafar Abubakar Umar, Director-General of the Nigerian Agribusiness Group; alongside other experienced women agribusiness professionals from the region.
Furera Isma Jumare, Founder of MDCL, explained that the workshop was designed to empower women participants from Kano, Jigawa, and Katsina States to strengthen their voice and visibility in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
Jumare further explained that the programme was designed to help participants recognize and take advantage of the vast opportunities available across the agricultural value chain. According to her, many women are not fully aware of the diverse prospects within the sector.
“We want women to understand that every stage of the agricultural value chain—whether inputs, production, processing, distribution, marketing, aggregation, logistics, or even export, offers business opportunities. The goal is to equip women in agribusiness with the knowledge and confidence to scale their ventures and generate sustainable income,” she said.
She noted that the workshop brought together 46 women from Kano, Jigawa, and Katsina States. “We called this Workshop Number One because it is the first in our new series focusing specifically on the agricultural value chain. Although we have organized different capacity-building programmes in the past, we have now re-strategized as a business group to concentrate on agriculture, especially at a time when the Federal Government is prioritizing food self-sufficiency. Our plan is to hold the workshop quarterly, gradually moving from creating awareness about agriculture to showing women how to fully leverage value chain opportunities,” she added.
The practical segment of the training featured accomplished women entrepreneurs from Northern Nigeria who shared their experiences and provided mentorship. These included Hajiya Usman Nagado, founder of Nagab Farm; Hajiya Amina Pindar-Abubakar, a former CBN Branch Controller turned farmer; and Hajiya Habiba Umaru Sule-Dalhatu.
One of the participants, Zainab Manzzo, founder of Zahir Farm in Kano State, described the workshop as eye-opening. She said the empowerment training helped her discover practical ways to tap into opportunities within Nigeria’s agriculture sector.
Tina Musa, a commodity aggregator, noted that she intends to build on the empowerment gained from the workshop to tap into opportunities in the export of processed agricultural products
