SIG Development Foundation

Regularly updating VSLA books and records is essential for transparency, accountability, and proper management of members’ savings and loans. It helps the group maintain accurate financial information throughout the savings cycle.

Key importance includes:
📌Accurate financial records – Records savings, loans, repayments, fines, welfare contributions, and other transactions correctly.
📌Transparency and accountability – Members can clearly understand how group funds are collected, loaned, and managed.
📌Prevents financial disputes – Updated records make it easier to identify and resolve discrepancies early.
📌Tracks individual savings – Every member can monitor their contributions and share value during the cycle.
📌Monitors loans and repayments – Helps leaders and members know outstanding loans, repayments, and balances.
📌Supports share-out – Accurate books make the final distribution of savings, profits, and other funds fair and easier to verify.
📌Strengthens leadership – Enables VSLA leaders to make informed decisions based on reliable financial information.
📌Builds members’ confidence – Proper documentation increases trust in the group and its leadership.
📌Facilitates audits and supervision – Updated books make internal checks, audits, and facilitator supervision easier.
📌Promotes financial literacy – Members learn practical skills in saving, borrowing, record keeping, and financial management.
Protects the group from misuse of funds – Regular documentation creates a clear trail for every transaction.
📌Supports sustainability – Good record keeping helps the VSLA operate effectively and successfully from one cycle to another.

“What is not properly recorded can easily be disputed.” Regular book updates ensure that every VSLA transaction is documented, verified, and understood by members, strengthening trust, accountability, and the sustainability of the group.

We're truly honoured by your active participation. 🙏🙏
. 🫡🫡

VSLA share out report First Quarter 2026.

We are delighted to share our First Quarter 2026 share out report on our VSLA program in Jechira.
7 council wards; 3 in Vandeikya (Mbadede, Mbagbam, Mbakyaha) and 4 in Konshisha (Iwarnyam, Ikyurav-Mbatwer, Mbagusa-Mbatser and Mbayegh-Mbakyer) were covered within this period. 33 VSLA groups with 710 membership shared out this first quarter.

In the 33 VSLA boxes that shared out, total transactions this year stood at 38,056,705 naira only. Total loans the women benefited from stood at 30,112,275 naira only. While defaulters were few, most of these monies were paid back resulting in the share out. Loans taken were used to improve livelihoods and take care of health and educational issues.

All the groups have also continued their various new cycles with zeal and excitement with a promise to do it better this year.

We are excited to see this growth and acceptability as well as the transformations we are seeing in the lives of our mothers, wives, sisters in the constituency. We are speeding up efforts to register all the VSLA groups as cooperatives and linking them to various service providers for various services such as financial inclusion and access to agro-inputs for this year's farming season.

Displaced persons visit.

Earlier today we visited displaced persons at the Community secondary school Degu, Mbagusa/Mbatser council ward of Konshisha LGA, Benue State.
8 of our VSLA groups members totaling about 200 women have been forced to leave their homes and make the school their place of refuge.
The area had come under attack from the neighboring Ulam community in Gwer East LGA.

We are grateful that God spared the lives of our beneficiaries and we gave Him thanks for this. We also urged them to keep hope alive and continue to press on not giving up. The women were excited and grateful for the visit, extending appreciations to our Board Chair, Hon. Engr. Sesoo Ikpagher and his amiable wife and our ED Mercy Ikpagher.

At the Camp, we donated food & non-food materials to the women, including clothes, Rice, Beans, Maggi seasoning, sanitary materials like sanitary towels, soap, detergents etc. We also had a time to sing and dance when the appreciation started.

32 VSLA groups, 800 women,13 million.

Last month we set out to wrap up the first savings cycle for our VSLA groups. We marked out 40 groups to support in the share out but ended up supporting 32 as 8 had not reached maturity stage.

We are glad to share updates of the activity. 32 groups comprising 800 beneficiaries were covered. These 800 women, saved over a year the sum of 10,961,400 naira only. After loaning to themselves and repaying their loans, the groups cumulatively realized an interest of 2, 304,955. Effective these women after a year of savings shared among themselves 13, 266,355 naira.

We are excited to see that all groups have restarted the savings for a new year and other women are anxiously waiting to be given training and boxes to support their start up. This September, we will still be supporting more of these groups to share out in Konshisha LGA.

Excitement, Commitments, Progress.

We are glad to share the excitement of our beneficiaries, their renewed commitment and significant life changes because we dared to teach them a different way of life.
We taught them to fish, we didn't give them fish, now they're fishing and enjoying their fish and are committed to keep fishing. Gradually, with these women, we are matching on to address the Sustainable development goals in our time and local environment.

SIGDEFO is leading change in the lives of the rural women in Vandeikya and Konshisha LGAs. We will get there, we will do it, our communities will greatly improve because we came.

40 VSLA groups share out in Shangev-tiev.

It's our pleasure to share that about 40 VSLA groups in Shangev-tiev have reached maturity and we have commenced the process to support their share out. So far in 5 locations in Iwarnyam and Ikyurav council wards we supported 8 groups of 25 women each to share out 4.5million naira only.
It's exciting to hear the testimony of what these savings groups are doing in the lives of these women and their families. From building new or strengthening old livelihoods to payment of school fees to either keep children in or return them to school it's been amazing. The women are excited that their all women group gives them access to cheap funds they can't find elsewhere and most importantly without stringent conditionalities including degrading their gender nor sexual exploitation which happen with other groups.

These women have seen the power on their savings box and are bent on keeping the boxes growing. They all are interested in either increasing frequency of saving or amount their saved this year. Interesting is also the birth of new groups, on this trip we have supported 15 groups with boxes to support their savings dreams.

The women are appreciative of the efforts of our board chair Hon. Sesoo Gboko and his wife our Executive Director Mercy Ikpagher to improve the lot of the poorest of the poor in far flung villages like Idyu, Agera Mbachambe, Achoho, Chehe etc.

In the coming weeks we will keep sharing our stories of change in the lives of Jechira women. To the good women of Jechira, we will keep working and striving until you thrive and become.

Celebrating Jechira Women!

On March 8th the international community celebrated International Women's Day 2025 and launched the year long campaign to towards women inclusion and empowerment for development.
We at Sesoo Ikpagher Gboko Development Foundation (SIGDEFO) are engaging with our women in a week long activity of engagement to address the opportunity to empower and include women in community development in our immediate catchment areas of Vandeikya and Konshisha LGA's (Jechira Federal constituency) in Benue State.
We are holding conversations with community women to discuss their importance in community development. We are advocating to men and strengthening the reality that women are an ample piece in the development conversation and their inclusion is paramount for community development. We are seeking support of the men folk to include women in development discuss and practice as well as allow women inclusion in the development paradigm.
Women are realizing their importance in development dialogue and practice. In Mbaakon community for instance women realized and chanted "Kasev ka Mzehemen"(women are development). In Mbawuar it was the men realizing that women are much more than we give them credit for. Elder. Henekaa Orkar leading men to clap for women in appreciation of the role women play in community development. We even crowned him, women champion in the community dressing him in our campaign Tshirt to AccelerateActions.

SIGDEFO is not resting this year, this week we will continue the campaign, mobilizing women and enlightening them on the need to rise up and develop their communities. We will challenge more men to take up the campaign to involve and include women in the development process.
For the rest of the year we will increase actions that will support women inclusion in development as well as those that will impart the over 30,000 women targetedon our VSLA program

Happy International Women's Day to all the women in the world, we are blessed because you are there for us.

Our board member Sir Torkuma Manasseh Gwater is a year older. Happy birthday Chief. Oil on your head and wine freely flow in your favor.