Female-led Tech Startup, HerVest partners with Kwara State Government to finance over 1000 rural women

The gender-based programme is formulated to train women farmers in Basic Agronomic Practices and Financial Literacy, to help them to make informed farming, and agribusiness conclusions while empowering them with access to credit, key information, and markets to grow their farm businesses.

The Gender Finance Project is in alignment with the 10-Year Agricultural Transformation Plan of the Kwara State Government led by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, which is designed to ensure food security, generate employment opportunities, and reduce poverty rate.

At the advent of the training exercise, the HerVest team led by the Technical Advisor on Agriculture to the Kwara State Government, Abdulquawiy Olododo had a courtesy visit to the Deputy Governor of Kwara State, His Excellency, Kayode Alabi, to flag off the initiative.

Mr. Kayode Alabi, the Deputy Governor of Kwara State, while welcoming the team,

 commended the groundbreaking project and conveyed the state’s eagerness to assist it while also substantiating the need for gender inclusion in global entrepreneurship through agriculture.

Moreover, he asserted that the partnership with the State Government is the right step toward the fruition of the state’s agricultural sustainable developmental goals.

Solape Akinpelu, the CEO and Co-founder, HerVest, earlier spotlighted the existing $42 billion gender finance gap and discussed HerVest’s mission to bridge this void by relating urban women with opportunities to impact investment in female farmers by empowering them with access to credit, extension services, and premium markets through a gender-focused lens.

According to her; “Female farmers contribute over 70% to food production in Nigeria, yet receive less than 10% of structured funding. They are highly disadvantaged despite their roles in the agricultural sector and require special support in realizing their potential.

“As a social enterprise geared towards impact and addressing the $15.6bn gender finance gap in agriculture, HerVest believes that partnerships and industrialization are key to addressing the challenges in agriculture. This is why we are truly delighted and honored to partner with the Office of the Technical Adviser on Agriculture to the Executive Governor of Kwara State to project finance and train 1,000 women farmers in the state,” Akinpelu, said.

She further expressed her excitement in collaborating with the state government on this feat while emphasizing female empowerment as an organic catalyst for economic growth. According to her, women are natural accelerators who reinvest a large percentage of their income into their households and therefore should be empowered with capacity.

Hervest is an inclusive digital platform that provides financial growth services to underserved and excluded African women through target savings, impact investing, and credit financing- specifically for women farmers in Nigeria.

So far, HerVest has impacted over 5,000 thousand female farmers across Borno, Plateau, Kaduna, Benue, Niger, Oyo, and the Ogun States in addition to its current project in Kwara State.

Hervest has over 20,000 women community members achieving financial wellness through competitive returns on target savings, agro investments, and gender-driven financial literacy resources. harvest is downloadable on internet-enabled devices.