Advancing Women’s Leadership in Agribusiness in Nigeria

18 November 2025, Abuja

Our German and EU co-funded project EU-VACE TARED hosted 50 women for the inaugural Women in Agribusiness Leadership Forum (WALF)—a first-of-its-kind gathering within the selected value chains. The forum was convened in response to the gender training gap analysis conducted earlier this year, which revealed a significant deficit in women’s leadership and decision-making agencies across the value chains. 

WALF was designed to strengthen women’s visibility, influence, and participation in leadership roles. The sessions focused on inspiring women to step into leadership and decision-making positions, while also encouraging them to mentor and advocate for other women within their networks. 

In attendance, was the Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture, Mr. Ayo Sotinrin who delivered a powerful keynote address, motivating participants and spotlighting the Bank’s gender-focused initiatives and financing opportunities available to women-led enterprises. 

Key Highlights included: 

• A role-play exercise on effective board participation
• A session where participants crafted their personal leadership stories
• A commitment to develop and implement a one-month leadership action plan 

In a major milestone, participants voluntarily nominated themselves to serve on a steering committee that will guide the scale-up of WALF into a full-fledged community of practice. 

The forum convened women across the project’s value chains, including representatives from women farmer associations and cooperatives such as SWOFON, women in mechanization, agro-processors, government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), as well as financial partners.  

The EU Agriculture Value Chain Facility (EU-VACE) and the Transformative Agricultural Systems for Rural Economic Development in Nigeria (TARED) project is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), co-financed by the EU, and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. 

The project also partnered with the EU–Nigeria Agribusiness Platform, who invited members of their community, delivered a presentation on the platform, and set up a registration desk for interested participants. 

We are excited about scaling this initiative and equipping even more women with the leadership capabilities they need to excel and drive transformative impact across agribusiness value chains.