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7yrs of RUFIN project: FG, IFAD review impact on rural farmers

The Intentional Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in collaboration with the Federal Government have xdesigned the Rural Financial Institution-Building programme (RUFIN) to strengthen the smallholder…

The Intentional Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in collaboration with the Federal Government have xdesigned the Rural Financial Institution-Building programme (RUFIN) to strengthen the smallholder farmers’ access to credit in rural areas. 

The seven-year programme which was conceived in 2006 and began in January 2010 was completed in March 2017 and the programme closure will take place on September 31,2017. 

 The Programme Completion Review (PCR) team has been to some of the benefiting states to assess how poor rural farmers, particularly women and the physically challenged, have fared over the past seven years.

 RUFIN was financed by IFAD, the Federal Government of Nigeria and the 12 participating states – Katsina, Zamfara, Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Nasarawa, Lagos, Oyo, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Anambra and Imo which are spread across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.  

 The IFAD/FGN financing agreement total programme cost was to be approximately US$40 million. The PCR mission estimates that actual expenditures at programme closure date will amount to around US$34.0 million. 

The purpose of the PCR is to assess results achieved over the seven-year implementation period, for accountability and learning purposes, and to reflect on performance, lessons learned and define an appropriate post-programme strategy. 

 In one of the town hall meetings with smallholder farmers in Imo, farmers extolled the performance of the programme as it significantly improved their access to soft loans from micro finance banks, which hitherto was very difficult.

 But farmers like Emmanuel Kalu who has lived in Maiduguri for over 20 years, expressed worry that the programme has come to an end raising fear over sustainability. 

But the PCR Team Leader in Imo, Dr. Walter Ahrey, asked the farmers to make use of the saving culture and group structure put in place by the RUFIN programme to continue to render services to members, adding that other subsequent programmes will make use of the existing structure created by RUFIN.

 The farmers, mostly women who are also into small-scale agribusinesses, said their financial status improved significantly during the seven years of implementation of the programme – which they want to see continue.

  Prior to RUFIN, farmer groups were formed mainly by government and donor projects offering grants and cheap loans.  

 Initially, RUFIN focused on revitalising and strengthening existing groups through training, including group governance, financial literacy, book keeping, credit registry, entrepreneurship, business planning and gender. 

 To address this situation, after the MTR, RUFIN moved towards the Village Savings and Credit Group (VSCG) methodology which promoted women’s groups of a manageable size and focused on savings and internal lending. A system of volunteers was introduced to replicate VSCGs at the community level.

 Simultaneously, group lending was promoted as a part of the RBP approach and MFIs were trained on VSCG formation. By March 31, 2017, there were 21,212 RUFIN mentored groups with 749,825 members (56% women). 

 In addition, 2,320 groups were formed by RUFIN mentored MFIs. RUFIN’s strong focus on the savings-led approach led to increase in group savings from N165 million at MTR to N 1.78 billion at completion.

  Though the programme areas were selected on the basis of high levels of rural poverty, the average savings per member increased from N3,699 at MTR to N23,018 at completion. The group savings assisted internal credit activities and helped members to develop internal credit history. 

For many farmers who benefited from the programme, the Federal Government and the International Fund for Agriculture should commence a second phase. 

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