THIS week's UK/Nigeria meeting provided another fascinating and informative hour, covering subjects as diverse as the training of local Nigerian instructors, crayfish and sms credit!
And all this despite an intermittent problem with time delay, which served as a gentle reminder that connectivity is still a considerable problem for most rural communities.
What particularly caught my attention was Fantsuam's ability to identify and respond to their communities' local needs. They are concerned, for instance, that their women farmers - comprising of around 1,500 of their microfinance clients - have difficulty affording fertiliser. This of course affects their productivity and ability to repay loans.
To combat this Fantsuam has put in order for a delivery of organic fertiliser to serve these women, which is due to arrive within a fortnight. They will then monitor the situation to see if this helps alleviate the problem. Should it do so, the order will be repeated!
I was also interested to learn of research by the new VSO at Fantsuam, which is focusing on two main local agricultural markets - namely catfish and soya bean. We will look forward to hearing the results in due course.
To learn about another Fantsuam farming initiative please follow the Zittnet story.