The Ugwumba Fund for Women (aka U-Fund for Women) is a micro-grants scheme designed to support rural women in Nigeria, especially the petty traders, who are selling "akara", tomatoes, groundnuts, oranges, vegetables, etc in order to survive and to provide for their families. Since inception in 2021, we have supported over 1000 women with our small grants of twenty thousand naira ($25) each. This year, we hope to empower another set of 500 women during the International Women's Day with $25 each
An estimated 54 million out of the total of 78 million women in Nigeria are based in rural areas and make a living from land, according to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. 42.5% of these 54 million women who live in the rural areas are illiterate and only about 26.8% of them have access to empowerment programs. Therefore, most Nigerian women living in the rural areas do not have access to lands nor funds for farming or to start up small businesses.
Through the U-Fund for Women, we shall donate $25 each to 500 women who are petty traders in the rural areas of Nigeria to enable them expand their small businesses. Some of them will use the money to buy umbrellas to cover their wares on the streets during rainy season. Others would use their grants to increase their wares (goods) in order to make more profits. With the support of the Ugwumba Women Network across the country, we shall monitor the beneficiaries and ensure that they succeed.
With our small grants support of $25 each, we expect that these 500 women who shall benefit from this project would be able to expand their small businesses and be able to take care of their families across Nigeria. In the future, we shall provide financial literacy training and introduce all the beneficiaries of the U-Fund for Women to microfinance banks in their Local Government Areas or States, so that they would be able to access credits (loans) in order to expand their small businesses.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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