…as Mercy Corps, LAPO empower 305 ginger farmers with ₦48m loan
Lack of National Identification Numbers (NIN) and Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) has been identified as one of the challenges hindering rural farmers from accessing credit facilities in Nigeria.
This is as 305 rural ginger farmers from Kachia, Sanga, Jemaa and Jaba Local Government Areas of Kaduna State have been empowered with N48,040 loan under the Empowering Resilient Ginger Farmers ERGF-TAZO project, organised by Mercy Corps International in partnership with Life Above Poverty Alleviation (LAPO), Micro Finances Bank.
Ismail Musa Rilwan, Programme Manager for ERGF-TAZO, stated this in his remarks at the Mercy Corps/ LAPO MicroFinace Bank Closeout Meeting Agenda held in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to Rilwan, many rural farmers are unable to access credits as a result of their inability to provide their NIN or BVNs, high interest rates and lack of collaterals, making it impossible for financial institutions to trust them with their funds.
Speaking on the Ginger Value Chain Optimisation project, he said the project which began October 1, 2023- August 4, 2025 targeted 500 farmers with access to finance across the selected Local Governments
“As parts of the projects successes, the project established a Ginger Seed Center with 200 farmers, established 124 demonstration farms, registered 50 ginger Cooperatives, trained 9,383 farmers in good practices and developed contingency plan for ginger diseases among others”, he noted.
In his comments during a panel session, entitled Financial Inclusion and Resilience: Driving Shared Prosperity in Nigeria’ Rilwan identified lack of access to NIN and BVNs as major blockers to farmers in rural areas accessing credit and loan facilities.
In his remarks, John Aifuwa Ogbebo, Agribusiness Manager for Kaduna State, Lapo Microfinance Bank, said beneficiaries were subjected to LAPOs due diligence, which includes appraisal and verification, location visit, home visit, credit search, as well as profit and loss and cash flow analysis.
Noting that 500 beneficiaries were targeted in the project, he said only 305 rural farmers were able to access the loans under the Mercy Corps, LAPO partnership
“What we are doing now is, even at the expiration of this project, we are still going back there. Some of them needinh assistance in getting their documentations will be helped because Lapo has the capacity to register BVN, we also have the equipment”.
“So, we will visit those locations, carry out BVN registration for those that have BVN, then, those that do not have NIN, we will direct them to the appropriate department and the organisation that will ensure they register, and we’ll see how we can still attend to more of them”, he noted.
He stated that some of the challenges they faced in the course of the project included lack of proper documentation, poor access roads to locations, risks of insecurity among others.
Meanwhile a Ginger farmer and representative of the ginger farmers in Sanga Local Government said the ERGF-TAZO was a blessing to the 300 beneficiaries in the Local Government.
“Mercy Corps intervention has been really helpful because it came exactly when it was needed. The year they started the project was the year that the ginger blights started, and it demoralised a lot of ginger farmers.”
Projecting the harvest for 2025, David was pessimistic, saying “despite Mercy Corps and our efforts, ginger blight still persists And is even worse this time around compared to previous years”
He noted that the reason for the continuous blight is because “Many farmers still use contaminated seedlings from their previous harvest due to lack of access to quality certified seeds,and at the end of the day, the blight still resurfaces”.
David however commended the Mercy Corps for coming up with the ginger seed multiplication centre.
“The ginger seed propagation, which we refer to as the clean seed is the way forward for ginger. And right now, it is not yet on a large scale. We are calling for more government support and even private sector investment to expand the project and support farmers” he said.
