Agricultural e- wallet strategy boosting the telecommunication sector

The Electronic wallet system has impacted massively on the telecommunications sector, according to Akinwunmi Adesina, the minister of agriculture and rural development.

Adesina stated this at the opening ceremony of the three-day Agra-innovate international conference and exhibition, in Lagos which started Tuesday in Lagos.

The E- wallet system is deployed by the Agricultural and rural development ministry in reaching farmers with subsidized farm inputs on mobile phones.

“The e-wallet system has impacted massively on the telecommunications sector, as farmers invested in the purchase of 7 million handsets, adding N 21 billion ($ 127 million) of devise sales, N 3-6 billion ($ 18 – $ 36 million) of airtime sales and N 116 billion ($700 million) of value to the market value of telecom companies”, he said.

The minister also spoke on the importance of private sector involvement in the agriculture industry. “We want the private sector to drive agricultural growth. The private sector is the power engine of growth” he said.

“The impact of seed and fertilizer manufacturing companies in Nigeria has been massive. $5 million investment has been made in the fertilizer industry in Nigeria today coming from Dangote, Indorama and Notore,” according to the minister.

“We have immense potential to become the food power-house, but potential is not enough, we must be able to unlock that potential,” he added.

“Nigeria is known for its oil, but we have more potential than the oil and gas sector”, the Minister said.

In a bid to reform the agricultural sector the Federal government initiated the Agricultural Transformation (ATA) in 2011. The ATA has changed the way agriculture is being looked at. It has made the sector to be investment focus. Agriculture is now a wealth creating sector.

“Agriculture is all about making money, it is not just for the sustenance of food supply”, according to Sani Dangote, chairman, Nigeria Agribusiness Group, who also spoke at the conference.

“We would improve the way we do business, to make sure the business environment is settled and make the youth to be more interested in agriculture,” Dangote added.

In addition, Adesina also said at the forum that bank lending to the agriculture sector has increased from 0.7 percent to five percent of banking industry portfolio. “Nigeria is the first in Africa, in fact first in the world to develop the e-wallet system for reaching farmers with subsidised farm inputs and seed,” stated Adesina. The seed companies in Nigeria rose from five in 2011 to 80 today and two of the world’s largest seed companies are in Nigeria, the minister further said.

In the recently released Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Q3 report, Agriculture GDP grew by 9.19 percent year to year in the third quarter of 2014. The sector grew by 45.54 percent from last quarter to date, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Crop production and livestock growth is the fastest growing by 52.83 percent and 5.05 respectively, the report states. Crop production is the major driver of growth in the third quarter of 2014, NBS adds. Agricultural contribution to GDP is 26.63 percent in the third quarter compare to 20.89 percent in the second quarter in 2014.

JOSEPHINE OKOJIE