NFWP-SU: Kogi SPCU Trains 94 Ward Facilitators to Drive Women Economic Empowerment in Lokoja LGA

By Yemi Balogun

​In a major push toward grassroots economic transformation, the Kogi State Project Coordinating Unit (SPCU) under the Nigeria for Women Project Scale-Up (NFWP-SU) has officially trained and deployed 94 newly recruited Ward Facilitators across Lokoja Local Government Area.

​The deployment follows a 6-day intensive capacity-building exercise designed to equip facilitators with technical operational tools to form, mentor, and institutionalize Women Affinity Groups (WAGs) across communities in Lokoja LGA.

Charging the participants in Lokoja, the State Project Coordinator, Dr. Esther Ameadaji urged the Facilitators to maintain high standards of professionalism and integrity as field ambassadors driving women’s financial inclusion. She emphasized the need for the newly trained facilitators to abide by the training guidelines.

The SPC noted that the rollout in Lokoja LGA builds upon the successful scaling of the Women Affinity Group (WAG) model across other key LGAs in Kogi State such as Okene,Yagba East, Dekina, Ofu and Adavi LGAs where thousands of women have already been organized into functional economic clusters known as Women Affinity Groups (WAG)

“Under the operational guidelines, each Ward Facilitator is responsible for mobilizing local women into structured affinity groups as a strategic approach to strengthening grassroots enterprise and building financial resilience.

The Ward Facilitators shall identify, sensitize, and organize women aged 18-55 within the wards into homogeneous affinity groups of 15-25 members, based on shared economic interests, proximity, and mutual trust”, she noted.

Meanwhile, the objective of the ward facilitators’ mobilization is to foster social cohesion and peer support among rural women, promote a savings culture and financial literacy, create a viable platform for accessing financial services, enterprise training, and government/donor interventions, build collective enterprises and improve bargaining power for income-generating activities and strengthen the financial resilience of households against economic shocks.

The Ward Facilitators are expected to facilitate the formation, provide initial group management training, and link the groups to higher-level federations and market opportunities for sustainability.

The Director, Lokoja Local Government , Alhaji Aliyu Musa Omuwa who was at the training to give moral support to the Local Government Project Implimentting Unit Staff and Ward Facilitators enjoined them to see their selection to serve as sacrifice which requires hard work, dedication and total commitment, advising them not to exhibit any form of laziness or indolence thereby denying the target population of the benefits of the program.

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He commended the State Government for its counterpart contribution to the program as well as the Team of the NFWP in the State for its resilience at ensuring the success of the program, saying an economically empowered Woman adds value to the the livelihood of her family.
The Lokoja DLG described the objective of the NFWP as a step in the right direction and appealed to the Ward Facilitators to take the job with the seriousness it deserves in the interest of the beneficiaries.
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