Savings Groups Empower Women in Rural Nigeria

Changing climate and poor access to water has made it increasingly difficult to profit from farming in  Ngurore, Nigeria. Many families have had to seek alternative means of earning money to supplement what little they can make from farming. Such was the case of many of the women who formed a savings group in Ngurore.

 

Kulu Adamu addresses members of her savings group in Ngurore, Nigeria.

Photo by Grace Yakubu/CRS

 

Hadiza Isah had to stop farming and rely on petty trading. She struggled to support her family.

“One of our biggest challenges in this community is access to finance, especially with regards to business,” says Hadiza. She sells local rice, rice cakes and groundnut oil extract to make ends meet. Sometimes it was difficult to pay her children’s school fees.

Hadiza learned about savings and internal lending communities, or SILC, in her community through the Stabilization and Reconciliation in the Lake Chad Region, or STaR project.

Implemented by Catholic Relief Services in Adamawa state, the STaR project is improving financial literacy through savings groups. The project recruits and trains workers in the CRS SILC methodology, providing them with capacity building and stipends for approximately 12 months. Upon completion of their training and assessment, these workers are certified as private service providers and supported to expand the reach and sustainability of SILC activities within project locations.

After her meeting with the SILC representative, Hadiza spoke to 10 other women and started the zaman lafiya da hadin kai SILC group—which translates as “peace and unity” in Hausa, a common language in West and Central Africa. As the group’s number increased, they decided to break it into three sub-groups of 15-20 members, with three leaders, Hadiza, Kulu Adamu and Judith Wilberforce. Since starting the SILC group, Hadiza has noticed a shift in her income.

“The first share-out I received from our savings went into my business. Now I have additional money to take care of my children,” said Hadiza.  

 

Hadiza Isah shares an update on the day’s activities with her SILC group members.

Photo by Grace Yakubu/CRS

 

“One of the advantages of savings group is unity. You learn how to interact and live with other people you don’t know. It promotes peace in the community,” Hadiza says. “It also promotes self-reliance, helping people to have savings after each saving cycle. With these savings you can further invest in your business.”

For Kulu Adamu, the SILC group has become a place of pride for her.

“The benefits I saw in being of a savings group made me invite over 20 other women to join the group,” Kulu says. It was hard for her to run her small business on credit, selling local beans. But things have changed for her since she joined the SILC group. 

With the first share-out she received, Kulu was able to run her business without borrowing. Part of the money went into buying a sheep that has given birth, helping her to start a livestock business. Kulu has become a strong SILC advocate, helping to educate other women on the need to be self-reliant and gainfully employed.

 

Kulu Adamu holds up the lamb produced by her first sheep. Photo by Grace Yakubu/CRS

 

As a group leader, Kulu ensures conflict resolution and fosters peace between disputing members in her group. Being a leader of a SILC group has accorded Kulu the role of a mother in the community because of her support to other women.

When she first joined the group, Kulu collected a loan of $17 and added extra money to buy a bag of beans and oil to fry more bean cakes to sell. Ever since, Kulu has stopped borrowing money from external sources to fund her business.

Of the many benefits of SILC groups is their contribution to community development. The only waterpoint in the community used to be faulty and people were forced to fetch water from a dirty river. Kulu said that children and women used to walk a long distance every morning to fetch this water, which often delays their going to school.

After several months of waiting for local government support, the group felt frustrated about the situation and jointly agreed to repair the waterpoint. This repair was done with money from their social fund, a certain amount set aside for the group for their welfare. They agreed it was a smart decision to contribute towards the community facility that would benefit them all.

“All these years, we always wait for the government to provide for our needs, but this SILC group has taught us to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. We now understand that we can lead the government of our community to be self-sufficient,” Kulu says.

 

Members of ‘zaman lafiya da hadin kai’ SILC group, in Ngurore community stand behind a water pump they rehabilitated using their group’s social fund.

Photo by Grace Yakubu/CRS

 

For Judith Wilberforce, hearing about the waterpoint repair motivated her to join the group.

“I heard the great news of how the women came together to contribute towards the renovation of the community waterpoint, and I knew I wanted to be part of them,” says Judith. She joined shortly afterward and became a group leader because of her dedication to the group activities.

 

Judith Wilberforce joined the SILC group when she heard the group repaired a waterpoint. Photo by Grace Yakubu/CRS

 

Judith was a commercial farmer before she joined the SILC group but had only been farming on a small scale, supplementing it with petty trading to support her family. Judith was the sole provider for her family after she lost her husband, who used to be a civil servant.

“I couldn’t join the group during their first cycle, because the membership was full. I joined during the second savings cycle,” she says.

After joining the group, she took a loan to weed her farm where she planted rice and maize. Judith is hopeful for improved income, having been able to plant on a bigger piece of land.

“I’m looking forward to harvest because I know it will be a bigger yield than the previous one. I wish that other women will experience the unity and togetherness we enjoy being a member of a SILC group,” she says.

SILC groups contribute to building peaceful and resilient communities, ensuring the inclusive participation of community members in community development. By bringing together individuals from diverse backgrounds and circumstances, SILC groups promote solidarity, mutual support and shared prosperity within communities. The CRS SILC approach also provides a kit for economic management and training in finance, marketing, entrepreneurship and vocational skills for its participants. They learn  best farming practices, home gardening and small ruminant production, boosting their livelihoods and resilience, especially for smallholder farmers.

 

Stabilization and Reconciliation in the Lake Chad Region project is a KFW  project implemented by CRS that is contributing to the recovery and resilience of vulnerable populations affected by the protracted conflict in the Lake Chad Basin. Supporting 59,000 people in 90 communities, the project helps improve access to basic services such as water, health, markets, roads and education, and expands livelihoods by providing agricultural supplies and opportunities for temporary employment through cash-for-work activities. The project also strengthens social cohesion between host communities and displaced people while strengthening local government and communities through joint local economic development, disaster risk reduction and conflict mitigation.