As part of the move to complement the efforts of the Federal Government to ensure food security, the Canadian Government under Global Affairs in partnership with AECF has launched N1.3 billion grants to 40 female farmers' groups in Kano State.
The head of Canadian global affairs in Nigeria, Arash Tehrani, who spoke at the program via zoom on Wednesday in Kano, said his government had been closely monitoring humanitarian situations in Nigeria
He said Canadian government had resolved to assist the Nigerian government and it's people in the area of agriculture, following the declaration of emergency in food security by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
He added that with the recent flood in some northern states and the spate of insecurity which displaced many from their homes and farmlands, the Canadian Government had decided to offer grants to women farmers as part of its contribution to support women in Kano State.
He said the funding would be in the form of non-refundable Canadian dollars, which is subject to meeting the matching fund.
He further explained that funding payments will be milestone based, whereby disbursement will be made based on mutually agreed milestones provided in the contract which must be achieved and delivered before the payment stage.
The fund comprised non-repayable grants totaling CAN $7.75m. Implemented by the AECF, the programme seeks to enhance women's economic empowerment by promoting women's participation in the traditional and non-traditional agribusiness sectors.
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In her speech, the Director program research, Susan Situma, said the primary beneficiaries of the program were women in agricultural value chain, to be implemented only in Kano State.
According to her, the 5 years empowerment program would support women in agricultural sector by investing in businesses and cooperatives operating in various agricultural value chain.
She said the African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) program would create 870 new jobs, with twenty one Thousand beneficiaries in value chain.
"The program seeks to transform the role of women in garri-value chains in Kano State Nigeria with an aim to increase incomes, improve climate resilience and transform livelihoods. The program will also provide capacity building and awareness creation around gender policy formulation to address gender barriers."
Situma, maintained that AECF used the challenged model to select investees through a competitive process that provides fair and equal access to available funding.
