The Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) has trained 70 agro-service providers across the nine Niger Delta states to equip service providers with new business skills, practices, and processes to improve their service delivery to Niger Delta farmers and enterprises.



The two workshops which took place in Warri, Delta State, and Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State under PIND’s Market System Development (MSD) project provided the service providers the opportunities to network and share peer-to-peer knowledge.



PIND’s Program Director, Dr. Effiong Essien said the end goal of the workshops is to “Improve the lives and livelihood of the small-holder farmers (SHFs), micro-small-and-medium-enterprises (MSMEs), and service providers through skill-building and skill-sharing.”



The workshops provided training on business development and management, business sustainability, capacity building, customer relationships, marketing/sales support services, and strategy development, among other skills.



A participant, Gabriel Udo, thanked PIND for the opportunity to be part of the training and shared the impact it has had on him. He said, “I have attended other workshops and training, but this is more exceptional. It is more impactful, and I’ve learned a lot. Due to this training, I am already making calls informing my workers on my farms of what to change.”



“I’m highly favoured to be among the participants,” said Miller Felicia, an oil palm farmer from Rivers State. “This training has given me an edge. My blood is hot to deliver. In every business, you will succeed if you have a vision. You must also have value. I am not the only service provider, but people cherished me because I know how to reward them. PIND has given me the innovation to go and practice,” she said.



PIND’s MSD project focuses on the services market and employs a service provider model, which leverages the capacity and skills of the service providers to boost overall market efficiency, productivity, and income.



At the end of the training, the PIND service providers are expected to use their learned skills to help small-holder farmers and MSMEs in various value chains such as cocoa, poultry, oil palm, cassava, and aquaculture in the Niger Delta to improve their efficiency, productivity, and income. They train the farmers and entrepreneurs on best farming practices, business management, soft skills, and conflict sensitivity training.



Since its inception in 2012, PIND’s MSD project has reached 931,699 farmers and MSMEs in the Niger Delta with information on agricultural and business best practices. 457,728 farmers and MSMEs adopted knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) that improved productivity to the tune of NGN 51.4 billion.



“Thanks to their training, most of our service providers have now positioned themselves to serve as a bridge between farmers, enterprise groups, and other agro-allied actors,” said Effiong.