By Yekeen Nurudeen

The Head of Programmes, Oxfam Nigeria, Constant Tchona has said that assets of  its Village Savings and Loans Associations, VSLAs, have reached $600 million in less than 20 months of its establishment.

He made the disclosure in Abuja at the strategic meeting between Oxfam, Bank of Industry, BoI and the VSLAs local partners on the modalities for the disbursement of loans to the VSLA groups by BoI.

“For about 20 months we have mentored the small scale farmers, their assets have grown. They now have total assets of over $600 million since the inception of the scheme.

“This meeting is to review the Bank of Industry  proposal on Government Enterprise Empowerment Program, GEEP, agree on the transaction dynamics for the GEEP/OXFAM loan scheme and come up with next steps for the respective stakeholders leading to the formal signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU,” Tchona said.

He said the scheme, which operates in five states of Adamawa, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau and Kebbi states is targeted at 80, 000 farmers in the five states by 2018 and also 15 million others in West Africa with Nigeria expected to have about five million of the regional target.

On her part, a member of the BoI GEEP team, Aisha Abdullahi said GEEP scheme was initiated by the Federal Government through the bank to improve financial inclusion in the country by providing credit access to 1.6 million Nigerian Micro Small and Medium Enterprise, MSME and youths in the 774 local governments of the country.

She said that the maximum amount of loan by the beneficiaries of the Oxfam VSLA is N30,000, payable monthly over six months with five percent administrative fees and which must be for commercial purpose only.

Also the program officer VSL/Water, Eyong Sunday said the scheme currently has 1, 105 groups of 26, 484 members comprising 18, 547 (70 per cent)women and 7, 937 (30 per cent) men.