2SCALE Thematic Papers Not By Technology and Money Alone | Page 33

13. Coaching after
project funds end:
We want to pay for
you to stay!
By Gbenga Idowu,
trainer-mentor,
Nigeria
Key themes: PO & Cluster development, Sustainability of coaching services, Functional capacities
Maize-Nigeria PPP Summary
The partnership
focuses on farmer
organisations selling
on open markets and
building relationships
between maize producers
and buyers; and on
interventions required for
an aflatoxin-free maize
supply chain. This story brings across very strongly a trainer-mentor’s
perception of the appreciation of farmers for the role and
work of coaching support to their livelihoods. When they
fully realise that they may lose the coach due to the end of
the 2SCALE project, the maize farmer representatives start
to come up with new ideas on how to pay for this business
support service themselves.
“If you had to pay to continue getting coaching services
after the 2SCALE project ends, would you pay – or would
you rather drop the whole thing?” As trainer-mentor of the
maize partnership in Nigeria, I was very interested to see
what would happen next. So with this question hanging in
the air, I started a discussion on the phasing-out of 2SCALE
support, with about twenty representatives of the four maize
agribusiness clusters in Nigeria. The participants represent-
ed producers, input suppliers, marketers and women pro-
cessors conducting maize business in towns across three
states in the South West zone of Nigeria. They were no
strangers to the 2SCALE project, having been part of it for
the last 3-4 years.
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The question was greeted with a moment of deep silence in
the room. The participants seemed to be deeply challenged
by it, as the coaching services for their clusters over the
years have been funded through 2SCALE.
Technical innovations reinforced by soft skills development
Then the silence was broken. One after the other the dif-
ferent representatives started sharing the major business
breakthroughs in their clusters and in their individual busi-
nesses, which they attributed to the co aching services. The
high value they placed on the combination of technical, or-
ganisational and business relationship building services pro-
vided to them through the 2SCALE project was not in doubt.