TAIMAKA
 
 

Our Mission:

To fight poverty in Northern Nigeria with evidence-backed solutions.

Over 72 million people in Nigeria live in extreme poverty; surviving on less than $2 a day. A growing body of rigorous research is shining a path forward. We are following it.

 
 
 
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We are starting by supporting smallholder farmers in Gombe, Nigeria.

Faced with the fear of rotting crops and strapped for cash, farmers in Gombe sell their crops for exploitative prices. By providing them with a combination of PICS bags and a low-interest loan, we can give them the freedom to sell at a time of their choosing, helping guarantee they earn a fair price, build savings, and climb the economic ladder.

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Our Impact

Taimaka’s loans and storage intervention is field tested and expert approved. Research by economists from Stanford, Berkeley, and Innovations for Poverty Action found that "a combination of PICS bags and low-interest loans resulted in meaningful increases in farmers incomes in Western Kenya by....[allowing] farmers to take advantage of price and storage opportunities" (Casaratto, Asman, et al. 2019). A similar study in Tanzania found that low-interest loans and the provision of PICS bags raised farmer incomes by almost 40% of the loan amount. With your help, we expect to see similar effects in Gombe, and utilize cutting-edge mobile data collection techniques to monitor the effects of our intervention.

Our Programs

As part of the Taimaka Project’s commitment to evidence-based, sustainable interventions, we currently run and monitor a loan and storage program in Gombe State, Nigeria.

Immediately before harvest, we provide farmers with financing and the access necessary to purchase advanced dry-storage bags directly from the distributor, avoiding exploitative middle-men in the Gombe area. These bags allow farmers to store their crops for long periods without having to worry about pests, mold, or any other potential spoilers.

Immediately following harvest, farmers are provided a low-interest rate loan, extending access to credit to otherwise credit-constrained farmers. This loan can then be used by farmers to buy food, pay school fees, and attend to other necessities while they hold on to their crops and wait for prices to rise.

In this way, we tackle the structural issues that lead to the exploitation of the poorest farmers, and get them the financial stability they need to save, plan for the future, and grow.

PICS Bags

Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags are affordable, long-lasting dry-storage bags developed by a team at Purdue University with the backing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. PICS bags are manufactured locally in Kano, Nigeria, but the initial capital outlay required to buy them is still prohibitively high for poorer farmers to afford without loan support.
 

Low-interest loans

Due to lack of documentation, infrastructure, and resources, the poorest farmers in Nigeria either cannot access credit, or are charged incredibly high interest rates. Taimaka’s low-interest loans open up new possibilities for these farmers to grow.

Data collection

Too many NGOs implement one-size-fits-all solutions that do not, in fact, fit the areas in which they are operating. Taimaka uses cutting-edge software, like Open Data Kit, to monitor the incomes and behavior of our customers. Coupled with modern statistical inference techniques, like propensity score matching, this allows us to verify that our program is genuinely helpful.
 

location

Gombe is a state home to nearly 2.5 million people in north-eastern Nigeria. Hard hit by Boko Haram in the late 2010s, the state has largely recovered, and is ripe for economic development.

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Get Involved

Combating rural poverty is a big job, and we need your help! Whether you are based in Nigeria or abroad, there are plenty of ways to get involved in our program. Take a look at the options below, or feel free to contact us for more information.

 

Sign Up For Our Mailing List

We send out regular email updates about the status of the project. Subscribe to our mailing list to stay up to date.

JOB opportunities

Taimaka employs a number of people in the Gombe area to manage our loans. Explore our opportunities below.

Make a Donation

100% of all donations go to expanding our operations in Gombe and reaching more farmers. Your help is always appreciated.