The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has inaugurated the “Agro eNaira Wallet Engagement” in partnership with the Association of Northern Agricultural and Allied Commodities Practitioners (ANAACOP).
Five million farmers in northern states are to be enrolled in the programme throughout the dry and wet farming seasons of 2023 to 2024.
The National President of ANAACOP, Alhaji Sadiq Umar Based user, disclosed this at the Agro eNnaira Wallet Launching in Yola, Adamawa State, over the weekend.
He highlighted that the initiative targets one million farmers in the northern states for the first year of the dry and wet seasons in 2023 and the remaining four million farmers for the seasons in 2024.
Read also: The Central Bank Of Nigeria Unveils USSD Code For eNaira Transactions
How Farmers Can Enrol For Loans Through Agro eNaira
Farmers, according to Daware, would create eNaira wallet accounts with a sub-wallet account just for the programmed intervention and submit their information to be eligible for soft loans.
According to him, 50 farmers from Adamawa’s Ribadu cluster were chosen to test the initiative before it was expanded to the other northern states.
Daware went on to state that the scheme has chosen agro dealers, processors, and the Central Bank of Nigeria to devise a simplified mechanism of disbursing payments to farmers (CBN).
He went on to clarify that the project will provide a platform for small-scale farmers to easily obtain loans using their eNaira wallets, emphasising that it would erase any obstacles they had previously encountered.
Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), complimented the ANAACOP for its efforts, calling it the first of its type to assist local farmers in purchasing farm equipment using their eNaira wallet.
Emefiele said that the CBN’s brilliant concept of a digital currency, expressed by Hajiya Rakiya Mohammed, Director Information and Communication Technology (ICT) of the CBN, was the first in Africa and the second in the world.
In his vote of gratitude on behalf of the awardees, Malam Mijinyawa Mahmud asked for additional support for farmers in order to achieve long-term food security and turn the country into a net exporter of raw materials.
The CBN has stated that adopting the eNaira wallet will help to alleviate the country’s cash scarcity in the middle of the current crisis. Mr Samuel Giwa, the state’s acting CBN Branch Manager, stated that the policy was a CBN strategy aimed at reducing the usage of physical currency in transactions and encouraging the acceptance of digital payments.
He was speaking at the Palace of the Deji of Akure and Oja Oba Market in Akure over the weekend, lecturing traders and citizens of the state on the need to use a cashless platform for transactions.
Giwa went on to claim that the policy’s implementation in 2021 will increase financial inclusion, reduce corruption and money laundering, and improve the financial system’s effectiveness.
The eNaira, he believes, is more than just a currency; it is a critical step towards creating a more stable and secure financial climate.
“It was designed to make transactions easier, more efficient, and more secure,” stated the CBN Branch manager.
The eNaira has undoubtedly become an important component of the Nigerian financial ecosystem, as well as an alternative conduit.
It would benefit not only the Ondo State economy but Nigeria as a whole; it will be a symbol of development and innovation, paving the way for a more safe and efficient financial system.”
The acting branch manager indicated that the CBN, a regulatory bank with a people-centred objective, was actively trying to solve the challenges currently associated with the currency reform strategy’s execution.
Yet, in order to aid residents of Akure and Ondo State, he urged them to download the eNaira Quick Wallet in order to make payments for goods and services and have easy access to financial services.
Mrs Mary Fasheitan, the CBN’s Special Assistant on Payment to the Governor, stated that the CBN organised the sensitization for people to understand all the benefits that the eNaira provides to the banking system while speaking to traders at Akure’s Oja Oba Market.
Nigerian Public Figures Reactions to eNaira
Speaking at the ceremony, Nollywood actor Gabriel Afolayan added that the platform would give Nigerian currency significance beyond only its physical form. He called it a better effort that would make it possible for people to move throughout Nigeria without feeling threatened.
He urged Nigerians to adopt it and embrace it, calling it a step above simple transactions.
The Deji of Akure, Oba Aladelusi Aladetoyinbo, praised the alternative forms of payment offered by the CBN in his remarks, but he urged the central bank and DMOs to put in place a dependable and effective infrastructure to make the policy popular with Nigerians and trouble-free.