FG adopts electronic wallet system for agriculture

GOVERNMENT

Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the adoption of electronic wallet system for use in agriculture.

The system will be used for the distribution of fertilizers, seeds and other agricultural inputs to the farmers.

Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adeshina made the disclosure at a media briefing on the outcome of the weekly FEC meeting chaired by the Vice President, Arc. Namadi Sambo at the State House, Abuja.

Adeshina noted that the platform will enable the procurement and distribution of seeds and fertilizers without money exchanging hands. He said a contract worth N1.327 billion had been awarded for the platform, that is expected to run till 2014.

Explaining government’s decision to adopt the electronic wallet system, the Minister for Agriculture said that the old system of distributing agricultural inputs was ineffective and riddled with corruption, adding that only about 14% of Nigerian farmers actually benefitted from the system as the inputs ended up in the hands of those he described as ‘political farmers’.

He recalled that the country has continued to supply fertilizers through a system where it procures and distributes fertilizers all the way from federal to the state level observing that such a pipeline of procurement and distribution is the problem as it does not reach 11% of the farmers which in his words, “makes Nigeria the only country that I know of that fertilizer has legs and walks away from farmers.”

He submitted that with the network of registered agro dealers across the country, farmers would be getting their allocation of seeds and fertilizers through their mobile phones.