Livestock Farm Success

"I am now a proud owner of a livestock farm." Mr. Miletus D. Jaisi is a 50-year-old husband and father of five girls and one boy. He is a member of the Kagong Toloyu VSLA group in Zing community of Zing LGA.

Prior to the implementation of the PROSELL Project, Mr. Miletus M. Jaisi used to depend mostly on the little salary he earned as a Local government staff, which was insufficient, and he sometimes had to seek support from his friends and extended family members. 'I have always nursed the idea of keeping livestock, but access to capital was my greatest challenge,' he said.

'I have always hoped that one day I will find a solution to this challenge,' he continued. 'So, when the VSLA Methodology was introduced in my community, I quickly joined and began to save from the little I was earning.' In December 2021, Miletus received training on the Gender Action Learning System (GALS). He immediately took an interest in two of the GALS tools ('The Vision Road Journey' and 'The Happy Family Tree').

I immediately shared the training with my family, and we quickly set up a 'Vision' of starting an animal farm as we have always desired. To achieve this vision, I took a loan of ₦90,000 from my group, added it to my savings of ₦52,600 at the end of the cycle, and bought eight goats and seven sheep.

Seeing the progress that he was making on his farm, Mr. Miletus later took a loan of ₦700,000, with which he bought six cows and fenced the land on which he now keeps his animals.

Today, Mr. Miletus is a proud owner of six cows, sixteen goats, and ten sheep. 'I believe that with the visioning tool and the access to funds through the VSLA introduced by PROSELL, everyone can achieve whatsoever they set out to achieve,' he said.

Mr. Miletus is grateful to the EU, Oxfam, and DEC for bringing the PROSELL intervention to his community."

Thanks to the generous support from the European Union, we are improving livelihoods and food security in Nigeria.

Edited by Maxwell Osarenkhoe