Rebecca Isaac, 50, sits on a wooden chair at the entrance of her house as she peels baskets of cassava at Pegi, a community in Kuje Area Council of Abuja. Her husband and their two children stand nearby, waiting to grind and process the pellets.
Mrs Isaac gets farm inputs on credit from people, and support from her husband and children. Her efforts to receive government funding and support in the past did not succeed.
Despite being in the federal capital, she, like most other women farmers in Pegi, have no access to formal financial services or government support schemes for farmers. They are also unable to receive financing from the banks.
Lack of access to key information about available programmes is a factor, leaving them open to fraudulent offers. “Some people came here and demanded N10,000 and promised to empower us. After paying, we didn’t see them again, another set came and collected our data and money but we have not heard from…
