Grooming Centre News

Grooming Centre played a pivotal role at the 1st Gender Inclusion Conference, held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on January 30–31, 2025. The event, themed “Unveiling the Gender Inclusion Initiative of the Aso Accord on Economic and Financial Inclusion,” marked the official launch of Project #ShesIncluded, a strategic initiative aimed at expanding financial and economic opportunities for women.

As a recognized leader in financial inclusion, Grooming Centre actively contributed to key discussions on empowering women through access to finance and economic opportunities. During the Gender Masterclass, the Centre shared impactful insights on its innovative financial solutions, highlighting its commitment to bridging the financial gap for women entrepreneurs and economically active women in Nigeria.

The conference featured panel discussions on scaling gender-based financial initiatives, reviewing existing financial programs for women, and tackling socio-economic challenges such as maternal health, girl-child education, and gender-based violence. Exhibitions showcased tailored financial products designed to uplift women’s economic status, reinforcing the need for inclusive financial ecosystems. 

In the first two months of 2025, the Centre hosted two due diligence visits from its partners – OikoCredit and Global Partnerships, with the aim of receiving credit for on-lending to the Centre’s members and promoting financial inclusion. 

The Centre has previously collaborated with Oikocredit in 2014, and with global Partnerships since 2021. These alliances are part of the Centre’s long and demonstrated experience with credible impact investors, and the latest visits were part of an in-depth evaluation of the Centre’s financial health, risk management framework, governance structures, and operational efficiency. The visits also evaluated Grooming Centre’s loan portfolio performance and its commitment to empowering underserved communities. Both teams independently provided valuable feedback on areas for improvement and commended the Centre’s ability to deliver services effectively despite challenging economic conditions.

These strategic engagements reaffirm Grooming Centre’s commitment to best practices in financial inclusion and responsible lending, while strengthening partnerships that drive sustainable economic empowerment and positioning the Centre as a trusted Tier-1 institution in the Nigerian microfinance sector.

Upon resumption at the start of the year, as part of the approved 2025 work plan, the Centre expanded the provision of the Green Energy financing and Agricultural Loan products, as well as an upward review of  the ceiling for its Solar Loan product. 

The Green Energy product was first introduced in October 2019 to finance mid-sized renewable and energy efficient systems for households and businesses, with a maximum loan amount of NGN10 million. In this initial phase, the loan was administered from the Centre’s Head Office, managed by the Special Projects team. Over the past five years, the Centre has disbursed over NGN700 million, financing more than 300 businesses and households.

To achieve its goal to contribute to sustainable environmental outcomes, the Centre has now extended the Green Energy financing product across all 580 branches in 32 states of the federation and the FCT. The goal is to finance up to NGN5 billion in renewable energy projects, enhancing clean energy sufficiency for at least 1,000 businesses and homes in 2025. 

Concurrently, the Centre also raised the ceiling of its Solar loan from NGN200,000 to NGN300,000 in response to sustained client demand and the impact of inflation on solar-powered device prices. The Solar Loan, which was developed in August 2017 as part of the Centre’s partnership with the IFC under the Lighting Africa Programme, the Solar Loan was initially designed to provide low-income households with sub-10W solar-powered devices, with a maximum loan amount of NGN20,000 for basic lighting. This initiative aimed to replace hazardous locally made lanterns. Since its inception, the product has expanded significantly, with a total of NGN3.4 billion disbursed, financing 100,995 solar-powered devices in homes across the country.

In 2024, the Centre launched the Agricultural Loan, following a technical assistance from GIZ. After a six-month pilot phase in July 2024 across 55 branches, the Centre aims to scale the product to 124 additional branches in 2025. This expansion is intended to increase support for farmers and value chain players, contributing to household food security across the country.