The National project Coordinator of Nigeria for women programme, Dr Hadiza Maina says the Nigeria for Women Programme Scale-Up (NFWP-SU), has mobilised ₦10.982 billion through members’ savings to strengthen women-led community institutions.
The development is a pathway to expand economic opportunities, financial inclusion, and resilience for women.
Maina stated this at the 26th National Council on Women Affairs, Child Advancement and Social Development in Jalingo, Taraba State in a presentation titled “Nigeria for Women Scale-up: The Transformative Power of Women Collectives.”
The programme is coordinated under the leadership of the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim.
The presentation showcased NFWP as a strategic, long-term partnership between the Nigerian Government and the World Bank, designed to institutionalise Women Affinity Groups (WAGs) and other platforms for women economic empowerment.
She noted that “the over 60 per cent multidimensional poverty faced by Nigerian women is linked to limited access to factors of production.”
According to Dr Maina, NFWP is institutionalising this existing practice, “turning informal savings into a scalable engine for national economic growth.”
She stated that the pilot phase, implemented from 2018 to 2024 in Abia, Akwa Ibom, Kebbi, Niger, Ogun and Taraba States, established WAGs through voluntary individual self-selection, creating structured platforms through which women could access finance and strengthen mutual support.
Under the Scale-Up phase, the programme targets more than 10 million Nigerian women by 2028, with coverage across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Dr Maina reported that 66,928 Women Affinity Groups had been created, with 1,482,459 women actively engaged as direct beneficiaries, while about ₦62.4 million in Community Investment Fund grants had been disbursed to 142 WAGs in Ekiti State.
NFWP-SU has also facilitated bank-account opening and National Identification Number (NIN) enrolment for more than 60 per cent of women beneficiaries.
She identified WAGs as platforms for strengthening women’s voice, agency and resilience, while improving access to finance, markets and productive opportunities.
Through its three components, NFWP-SU supports community institutions, livelihoods collectives, and project management, monitoring, evaluation and learning.
The Community Investment Fund provides seed capital for micro-investment plans, while Livelihoods Collectives aggregate WAG members for value-chain development, market access and business growth.
Her presentation, however, acknowledged implementation challenges, including variations in the pace of implementation, differences in States readiness, data-quality and timeliness concerns, diverse community contexts and security risks.
Maina stressed that “Adaptive implementation is essential”, given structural and cultural differences across states and communities, requiring delivery approaches, timelines and messaging to be tailored to local realities.
Forecasting, she said the “programme is prioritising digital financial services and fintech partnerships, development of a self-sustaining Community Investment Fund, deeper social and behaviour-change programming, and integration of climate resilience, WASH and reproductive health into the economic model.”
Dr Maina called for a strategic shift “from reaching women to strengthening women-led institutions,” positioning collective action as a pathway to sustainable economic empowerment and resilience for millions of Nigerian women.
,){kind=link}