Transformative smallholder livestock credit: Insights from Nigeria’s World Bank projects

“Access to credit is the bridge between survival and opportunity.” Muhammad Yunus

From tradition to scale

A persistent misconception is that livestock enterprises have long gestation periods and are therefore unsuitable for credit. In reality, several livestock production models such as cattle and small ruminant fattening and feedlot systems have short cycles and can generate returns within months, making them well suited to structured financing.

The World Bank–assisted Smallholder Fattening Scheme under Nigeria’s Second Livestock Development Project (SLDP) was firmly rooted in long-standing traditional cattle fattening practices linked to Eid Kabir and other festive periods. Rather than imposing a new system, the project strengthened an existing cultural and economic activity through modest but effective innovations, notably improved feeding regimes and basic animal health care. Crucially, access to credit enabled resource-poor farmers to participate in an enterprise previously dominated by well-capitalised traders and butchers.

The scheme relied largely on locally available inputs, enhancing sustainability and insulating producers from policy shocks, imports, and foreign-exchange volatility. Unlike the import-dependent commercial poultry systems of the time, cattle production converts materials inedible to humans into animal-source foods and efficiently utilises marginal and non-arable land. This recycling function underpins the resilience of smallholder livestock systems and their contribution to food security, income generation, and sustainable land management.

Credit architecture and key enablers

Established in 1973, the Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank (NACB) was mandated to promote national economic development by financing farmers and cooperative societies. Under the SLDP, NACB managed the credit component, while commercial banks and state cooperative societies were designated as potential on-lending agencies. Drawing on prior experience, the National Livestock Projects Division (NLPD) of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture delivered producer support services.

NLPD and NACB jointly conducted rigorous beneficiary appraisals and provided hands-on training before animal acquisition. Training covered stock selection, housing, feed preparation, feeding practices, and essential animal health care. This combination of financial screening and technical capacity-building significantly improved stock management, productivity, and loan repayment.

Strong institutional enablers were already in place. The Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF), managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria since 1977, guarantees up to 75 per cent of loan defaults, reducing lender risk and encouraging banks to finance agriculture. Complementing this, the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) protects farmers against losses from disasters and diseases. With premiums subsidized by up to 50 per cent, NAIC enhances loan security and business continuity.

Credit performance

According to the World Bank’s SLDP Implementation Completion Report (Loan 2737-UNI, 1996), the smallholder livestock credit component performed strongly. About 23,000 farmers received intensive training in feeding technologies for cattle fattening. By project completion, N169.14 million (about US$10.5 million) had been disbursed through 22,907 loans 70 per cent for cattle fattening.

The scheme generated an estimated 6,995 tons of incremental meat production, raised farmer incomes by an average net gain of N3,265 per beneficiary, and achieved an 82.5 per cent loan repayment rate, close to the 85 per cent target.

Lessons learnt

Despite favourable conditions, commercial banks participated only marginally. Their explanation was simple: the administrative cost of managing small loans is nearly the same as that of large ones, making smallholder lending commercially unattractive. Banks, therefore, preferred fewer, larger exposures, even where credit risk was demonstrably low. Cooperative societies failed to qualify from the outset, as most could not meet World Bank requirements, notably three years of audited accounts and evidence of democratically elected leadership.

Smallholder farmers generally used loans responsibly and repaid reliably. Agro-pastoralists, however, were less suited to fattening schemes. While default rates were low, loans were often used to expand herd size rather than produce finished market animals, with repayment coming from the sale of older stock. Similar patterns emerged in dairy schemes. Although farmers understood the benefits, higher milk yields, shorter calving intervals and healthier calves, loans intended for feed and veterinary care were sometimes diverted to other household needs, limiting productivity gains despite broader welfare benefits.

These outcomes underscore the need for clear guidelines, close monitoring, and strong stakeholder engagement, particularly where household financial priorities compete.

When caution becomes exclusion

This took me back to 1989, during a joint Nigeria–Ghana World Bank–sponsored dairy mission to India’s National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). We met the late Dr Verghese Kurien, “Mr. Operation Flood,” father of India’s dairy revolution. He recounted how a bank declined to accept milking cows as collateral, coining the memorable rule: banks do not accept “walking collateral.” Such attitudes became a recurring pattern in agricultural finance, reflecting risk aversion, rigid practices, and reluctance to adapt to livestock realities.

Back home during  implementation, the Kaduna SLDP project officer- (Dr Gashash Ahmed), sought to extend smallholder credit to residents of a leprosarium in Saye village, near Zaria, Kaduna State, managed by the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Training Centre and supported by the Netherlands Leprosy Relief (NLR).

Despite completing appraisals and documentation using the appropriate term “loan beneficiaries,” a social worker accompanying the project officer repeatedly referred to the applicants as “patients,” even though all had been fully cured of leprosy. As a result, this very inclusive initiative stalled, caught between language and an unwritten rule. The bank first rejected the loans on risk-mitigation grounds. Loans were approved only after senior management intervened, exposing a tacit banking rule: don’t lend to anyone “sick,” since unscheduled exits—exitus letalis—directly mean non-performing loans. Banks, after all, are not in the business of underwriting untimely departures.

Nigeria’s experience shows that smallholder livestock credit when combined with training and technical support can raise production, incomes, and inclusion. Yet rigid banking practices and high transaction costs continue to constrain scale, despite strong risk-mitigation instruments.

Unlike the much-criticised Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, this model if aligned with Nigeria’s digital and cashless transition and anchored by reliable off-takers offers a transformative pathway for livestock finance. Mobile payments, digital identity, and AI-driven credit can cut costs, expand access (especially for women and youth), and enable smallholders to scale, move less, prosper and strengthen national food security.

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