Ms Nathalie Ebo, an associate partner in the implementation of dairy development programme in Nigeria, has warned that women may be chased out of milk business in the next 20 years.
Ebo, an associate partner with Sahel Consulting, the firm implementing the development programme, gave the warning at the 4th Global Dairy Congress Africa in Abuja on Friday.
The two-day congress, which had participants from within and outside the country, with over 60 companies in attendance, has the theme, ‘‘Accelerating Investment and Cooperation of Dairy in Africa.’’
Ebo said unless something urgent was done to improve the capacity of women, whose mainstay had been processing of local milk and other dairy products, they could be pushed out of business in the next 20 years.
According to her, there are several factors affecting women in the dairy value chain, including lack of financial capability, cultural setbacks among others.
‘‘Women are central in the dairy sector in Nigeria, but unfortunately they are not making much impact due to several militating factors.
‘‘For instance they do not have access to productive resources because the men own the cattle while the milk is for the women.
‘‘They also do not have access to required facilities for high milk productivity.
‘‘They are not the primary decision makers and they do not have access to finance to run the business properly.
‘‘In some cases where they are being linked up with relevant stakeholders like the processors, men dominate the place when they realise it is lucrative,’’ she said.
She called for support for women who had been largely in the business over the years.
She emphasised that they should not to be chased out because of technological advancement and prospects in the business.
Ebo presented a paper titled, ‘‘Improving Productivity and Livelihood of Local Dairy Farmers in Nigeria.’’
She said that women who constituted a large number of the country’s population should be encouraged to develop their capacities in the area for the benefit of the nation.
She noted that Sahel Consulting was already implementing the dairy development programme in partnership with processors and the government, with focus on women empowerment.
‘‘For us when we think about developing the sector, we think it is very deliberate to think about the women by organising and training them to learn dairy as business, training them in leadership, making sure the men are not the ones running the cooperatives.
‘‘We give them access to finance so that they can do more. For instance women should be able to organise themselves, buy some equipment to start mini- processing to add value.
‘‘If they are not mainstreamed now, in 20 years we are going to have an industry that is run by only men,’’ she said.
She further stressed the need to reposition the entire dairy sub-sector to make Nigeria a major world player.
