LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – On the day she was supposed to celebrate her husband, Enoch Yemi was preparing to leave home and join him.
Her husband was getting ready to mark his 32nd year in service as a naval officer, and Yemi had planned to be there with him.
Instead of the celebration she had imagined, however, news came that abruptly changed the course of her life. Her husband had died.
That moment in 2017 did more than take away her partner. It also brought an abrupt end to a small agricultural enterprise the couple had built together while living in the barracks.
They had kept poultry and reared snails in their backyard, selling the birds and other farm products for income. It was a modest business, but it was something they understood and could grow together.
After his death, Yemi could no longer continue.
Without her husband and without the money required to restart the enterprise, the business gradually disappeared from her life.
Nine years later, sitting among other military widows at an agribusiness training programme in Lagos, Yemi found herself thinking about that abandoned chapter again.
READ ALSO: Brazil Commits $8b To Nigeria’s Agribusiness Under Green Imperative Project
For years, she had lived with the feeling that the agricultural business she once knew was something she had left behind. The training, however, reminded her that she still possessed something important: experience.
“It is like an awakening for me,” Yemi said.
The lessons brought back memories of the poultry and snail business she had once operated with her husband. More importantly, they showed her that restarting was possible.
“There are things I was doing before that I wasn’t doing well, but now I know better,” she said.
As the facilitator spoke, Yemi said she felt as though the training had been designed specifically for her.
But there was still one obstacle. Finance.
She had the experience and renewed confidence, but not the capital to start again.
Yemi’s story is one among several that unfolded at an agribusiness training organised under the Widows Financial Inclusion Programme, known as WiFin, an initiative of Hands of God Widows Support Initiative (HOGWIN).
The programme, which was developed to move widow support beyond one-off charity, seeks to equip widows with skills, tools, finance and business support so that they can become economically active and build sustainable livelihoods.
At the August 8 training, held at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church Hall, Navy Town, Lagos, widows were introduced to opportunities in poultry, catfish and livestock farming.
The training was conducted in partnership with VODA Farms, whose volunteers shared practical knowledge on livestock production, rearing, marketing and other aspects of agribusiness.
For HOGWIN’s Executive Director, Franklin Audu, the philosophy behind the initiative is straightforward -widows should not merely be recipients of handouts.
“The goal is not charity, but investment in widows,” he said.
The organisation’s approach is to train beneficiaries, identify those who are ready to go into business, provide them with tools or financial support, and continue to mentor them as they develop their enterprises.
Audu said the programme had trained 120 widows since its launch about a year earlier, with 20 receiving financial support through business grants.
The grants, he explained, had supported different businesses, including catering, tailoring and hairdressing.
The organisation’s ambition is considerably larger.
Its target is to train 1,000 widows every year, while building partnerships with financial institutions, development partners, corporate organisations and individuals who can help expand the programme.
For the widows, however, the value of the initiative is often measured in much smaller, more immediate changes.
READ ALSO: ELRA, Heifer Nigeria Launch Farm Equipment Leasing Scheme To Boost Food Production
For Mrs Adetokunbo Agboide, one such change came in the form of a mixer.
A widow for three years, Agboide received a ₦50,000 grant from the programme last year. She used the money to strengthen her business and acquire a mixer she had long needed.
Before then, she mixed her products manually, using her hands.
The process was physically demanding and made it more difficult to meet the demands of customers. The mixer changed that.
She was able to increase the ease and speed of production while reducing the energy required to do the work.
Her business, she said, has since progressed, and she has been better able to meet customers’ demands and deadlines.
The training has also opened her mind to opportunities beyond the business she already knows.
During the agribusiness session, she learnt that snail farming could be done even within a residential compound.
“I did not know,” she said.
Now she is considering trying it herself.
For Patience Agoikwu, survival has meant learning to diversify.
A mother of five, Agoikwu already sells eggs and operates a small shop. But her business journey has not been straightforward.
She previously made bags and souvenirs for weddings, birthdays and other occasions. She could make different types of bags, including family and ladies’ bags.
But as economic pressures mounted, she noticed that customers became more concerned with meeting basic needs.
“People needed food before they could think about buying bags,” she said.
Her fashion business declined to the point where it could no longer adequately support her children. Rather than abandon entrepreneurship altogether, she added provisions and other products to her business.
Today, she continues to sew while also selling provisions and eggs.
Her experience reflects one of the issues the organisers hope to address through the WiFin programme: helping widows identify multiple opportunities for income rather than depending entirely on a single source.
From training to a market
The partnership with VODA Farms is designed to take the idea further.
Zainab Ogbonnaya, CEO VODA Farms involved in the agribusiness training, said the session focused largely on livestock production, marketing, rearing and practical considerations around farming.
She said she was encouraged by the response from the widows.
Their questions, she said, showed that many were interested in starting agricultural businesses but lacked the opportunity or avenue to do so.
For her, supporting the women was a personal decision as much as a professional or voluntary one.
She said she had always been interested in supporting women and understood that widowhood could place enormous pressure on women who suddenly had to raise children and manage households without their husbands.
The objective, therefore, was not simply to put the women in a classroom and leave them there.
“A possible credit arrangement is being explored through which interested widows could obtain products such as eggs and chickens from the farm, sell them to their customers and return to restock,” she explained.
But Ogbonnaya stressed that the women would first need to understand their customer base and develop the marketing capacity required to sell the products.
The idea is to reduce one of the biggest barriers facing small businesses, the initial capital needed to buy stock.
“Instead of requiring a widow to raise all the money before she can begin, the proposed model would allow her to start with access to products, sell them and build her own working capital,” she said.
It is a small-business model built around the principle that opportunity must be accompanied by access.
Why the volunteers came
For Zeenat Asseh, another volunteer involved in supporting the programme, the motivation comes from personal experiences with widows.
She said her concern for widows grew after witnessing the difficult experiences of friends who lost their husbands.
She supported them through their periods of widowhood, and those experiences strengthened her desire to contribute to programmes that empower women facing similar circumstances.
Her interest in the training, she explained, was rooted in the belief that widows need more than sympathy.
They need knowledge and practical skills that can help them strengthen the businesses they already have or establish additional sources of income.
Multiple businesses, she noted, can make a significant difference in a family’s ability to meet everyday needs, including feeding children and paying school expenses.
READ ALSO: Governance Rules Reshape UBA Board As Elumelu Hands Over To Nnorom
For Asseh, the training was therefore an opportunity to give the women another possibility.
She said the response from participants was encouraging because many asked questions and showed interest in applying what they had learnt.
Their enthusiasm suggested to her that the women were not necessarily unwilling to work; many were simply looking for an opportunity, guidance and the means to begin.
She also acknowledged that training alone cannot determine what happens afterwards.
The organisers cannot follow every participant home or guarantee that every woman will put everything she learnt into practice.
But, she said, providing the knowledge and opportunity is an important part of the responsibility of those organising the programme.
Beyond the grant
That philosophy is central to HOGWIN’s approach.
Audu said the organisation does not want to train widows and then leave them to navigate the challenges of business alone.
After training, selected participants are expected to move into an incubation stage where they receive further lessons in areas such as business planning and financial management.
This is important because many small businesses fail not necessarily because their owners lack customers or determination, but because of weak financial management and poor business decision-making.
The organisation therefore intends to help beneficiaries understand how to manage money, make business decisions and eventually scale their enterprises.
The model extends from incubation to start-up and, ultimately, growth.
In agriculture, the partnership with VODA Farms could provide another layer by connecting beneficiaries to actual products and potential markets.
The objective is to create a value chain rather than a one-day intervention.
And that is where the stories of women like Yemi become significant.
Nine years after the death of her husband brought her poultry and snail business to an end, she is now looking at agriculture again.
This time, she is not simply remembering what she lost.
She is considering what she might rebuild.
For a woman who once believed that chapter of her life had closed, the training has reopened a possibility.
The capital she needs is still a challenge. But the knowledge, she says, has reminded her that she can begin again.
That may ultimately be the measure of programmes such as WiFin: not how many women sit through a training session, but how many are able to turn the knowledge, resources and opportunities they receive into businesses that sustain themselves and their families.
For HOGWIN, the ambition is to make that possibility available to many more women.
Its message is that widowhood should not permanently define a woman’s economic future.
With skills, access to finance, mentoring, market opportunities and the right partnerships, a woman who has lost her husband can still rebuild—not merely to survive, but to participate fully in the economy.
And for Yemi, who once waited for a celebration that never happened, starting again may be the beginning of a different kind of milestone.