The Minister of Women Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, has announced the upcoming launch of the Women’s Agro Value Expansion (WAVE) Programme, a new initiative aimed at transforming women in agriculture from subsistence farmers into agri-preneurs.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim made the disclosure in Abuja during the Renewed Hope – Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (RH-GEEP) Roundtable Meeting on Thursday, where she highlighted the Federal Government’s resolve to advance women’s economic empowerment through agriculture.
She commended the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), the GEEP team, and other partners for what she described as their consistent commitment to inclusion and empowerment.
“When we empower a woman, we empower her entire family, her community, and, in turn, our nation,” the minister said, stressing women’s central role in health, nutrition, and education.
Despite accounting for nearly 70 per cent of Nigeria’s agricultural workforce, women, she noted, are often excluded from markets, value addition, and decision-making. The WAVE Programme, launched under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda (RHA), is designed to change that by equipping women with access to finance, training, market linkages, agribusiness support, mechanization, and storage facilities.
According to the minister, the initiative aims not only to build women’s capacity within agri-food systems but also to strengthen their contribution to feeding the nation. She emphasised that WAVE would complement RH-GEEP’s financial inclusion efforts, pointing out that access to credit must be combined with skills and enterprise support for meaningful impact.
“Women’s issues cannot be relegated to charitable causes. They need access, opportunity, and genuine partnership,” she said, urging stakeholders to collaborate in moving millions of women from subsistence farming into prosperity and contributing to the N1 trillion economy envisioned under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
Also speaking at the national stakeholders’ roundtable in Abuja, the National Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Badamasi Lawal, said the new phase marks a restructure and reevaluation of the scheme, substantiated by trust, consistency, and accountability.
“This gathering reflects our collective commitment to deepen financial inclusion, expand access to credit for small businesses, and empower our people, particularly women, youth, artisans, petty traders, and smallholder farmers, who form the backbone of Nigeria’s informal economy,” he said.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim echoed the National Coordinator’s words with a call to action, encouraging all partners to remain committed to ensuring Nigerian women take their place at the center of economic growth and national development.