MORE than 30 women farmers, under the auspices of the Smallholder Women Famers of Nigeria (SWOFON), have been trained to understand the cycle of the budget process with a view to increasing the advocacy for inclusion, accountability and allocation in the agricultural sector.
The two-day training, held in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, was organized by the International Budget Partnership (IBP) in collaboration with the Center for Social Justice (CSJ) to cover the basic process of budgeting, legal and policy frameworks around budgeting, budget formation and implementation, and audit.
The senior program officer of IBP, Adedeji Ademefun, said that the capacity training was part of the Strengthening Public Accountability for Results and Knowledge (SPARK) program for small women farmers to access farm input, credit and deepening their campaign around gender-friendly types of equipment, and improve budget for agricultural initiatives in Nigeria.
Ademefum noted that the program focused on five states; Jigawa, Anambra, Oyo, Niger and Nassarawa, where representatives of women farmers would be empowered with knowledge on how to engage the 2024 budget, which is being implemented, and the formation process of the 2025 budget in their respective states.

He said, “We want to see more improved spaces for women farmers to participate in the budget process because they understand how they understand their issues and can drive their campaign for better advocacy.
“If you cross-link this with our SDG 2030 goals on zero hunger, there is no way to achieve this without empowering the community of smallscale women farmers which constitute over 70 per cent of the farming population in Nigeria.”
Also, the Executive Director of CSJ, Eze Onyekpere said, “Members would be asked to design follow-up plans which they would implement in their respective states in identifying key stakeholders they have to talk to in the pre-budget stage, budget formulation stage and implementation.”
Onyekpere noted that the impact of the training could birth gradual developments in allocation to the agricultural sector and inclusion of smallholder women farmers in the budgeting process over the years.
Meanwhile, the National President of SWOFON, Fatima Bello, lauded the initiative saying that the training would help women farmers identify and interact with key stakeholders to strengthen the advocacy effort.
“As farmers, we need this to improve our farming yields and boost our farming to address food insecurity. With this training, we understand the budget cycle to help advocacy efforts so that women farmers can get the right allocation,” she said.
Kehinde Ogunyale tells stories by using data to hold power into account. You can send him a mail at jameskennyogunyale@gmail or Twitter: Prof_KennyJames | LinkedIn: Kehinde Ogunyale