- Briefly tell us about yourself and your organization.
My name is Steven Emmenghe Njar, the CEO of Stegs Enterprise. Stegs Enterprise is a non-governmental organization, registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria (RN 3605946). Our goal is to address the challenges faced by farmers in society, particularly women and youths, through training and empowerment on how to make farming a sustainable means of livelihood.
- What motivated you to start your social enterprise?
Born in a village, I followed my parents to the farm and learnt traditional farming practices. After my college degree in Agricultural Education, I decided to make farming a bit more modernized, lucrative and attractive to youths, women and children. Also being a climate change advocate, there is no better way to address environmental problems than through adopting the best and most sustainable farming practices.
- So far, what has been the impact of your social enterprise?
So far, we have trained farmers especially youths, women and children in over 11 villages in Ikom and Etung Local Government Areas of Cross River State, Nigeria. They have been trained on Best Management Practices (BMP) and Sustainable Land Uses (SLU) with most of them becoming part of the Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA). These trainings have impacted heavily on their farming practices. They have also improved their use of farmlands and they have been able to access microloans from the VSLA loan scheme to support their practices.
- What are the major challenges you are currently facing in your social enterprise?
We are faced with 2 major challenges which are:
1. Mobility: Some of these communities are far from our office. We spend so much on transportation.
2. Funding: It is difficult to access funding to support our services as we train most of our farmers for free while being responsible for the trainers’ fees and their logistics. Part of our goal is to be able to provide seed capital to enable our target audience to go into the farming business after training and only having access to funding support can enable us to realize that.
- Mention one big change you will like to see in your line of work.
It would be fulfilling to someday see a large number of people in the villages making sustainable livelihoods via Agriculture. It will also be helpful to get support from organizations that can fund our activities and provide resources like fertilizers for our farmers.
- Do you have a final message for a budding social entrepreneur who is interested in your field of work?
96% of rural dwellers are farmers. By supporting them with the necessary training to make their farm practices viable and environmentally sustainable, we will be meeting their financial needs, and preventing issues like youth violence and global warming.
- How can people connect with you on social media?
They can connect with me on:
- Facebook via Steven Njar
- Twitter via @EnterpriseStegs
- Instagram via stegs_enterprise
